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ALPHABET ^l 



PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE OF SPAIN, 



PHILOSOPHICAL EXAMINATION OF THE ANTIQUITY AND 
CIVILIZATION OF THE BASQUE PEOPLE : 



AN EXTRACT FROM THE 



WORKS OF DON JUAN BAUTISTA DE ERRO. 

•1 



BOSTON, 

PRESS OF ISAAC R. BUTTS. 

' 1829. 



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07b 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, 



A personal acquaintance with Mr Erro during my late 
residence in Spain, (from 1816 to 1819) and admiration of his 
extraordinary genius, first induced me to examine with attention 
those of his literary labors from which the following pages are 
an " extract ;" the impressions in favor of his opinions as to 
the antiqueness of the basque language which I at that time 
received, were very much confirmed, when afterwards (in 
1S21) I found him in Paris applying his system with success, 
to the explanation of the legends on various Etruscan monu- 
ments existing in the French national library ; these having 
baffled all the ingenuity of the antiquaries and philologists, had 
long since been abandoned ; as wholly inexplicable : from this 
highly interesting occupation Mr Erro was called away by the 
political revolution in his country ; having returned to Spain and 
entered into the councils of his king, he has left incomplete a 
work, which had it been pursued by his powerful and philo- 
sophic intellect, and with his indefatigable industry and research, 
could not but have produced the most satisfactory results, and 
have established his own reputation amongst the most illustrious 
in the republic of letters. From the period here referred to, 
Mr Erro having continued to be an influential member of the 
Spanish administration, his political character has become 
" European" and has partaken of the universal abhorrence 
excited by that course of vindictive persecution which has fol- 
lowed the "restoration;" though this fact cannot diminish his 
authority as a man of erudition, yet possibly in certain points of 



view, it may tend to predispose some of his American readers 
to receive his philosophical opinions with disfavor or distrust ; 
it may not therefore be deemed improper for me in this place 
to offer bis apology founded on an intimate personal acquaint- 
ance. Mr Erro is a philanthropist in the most comprehensive 
sense of that term, and his temper is singularly liberal, mild, 
and conciliatory ; in whatever degree he may have manifested 
condescension to the royal power, it is certain that he has not 
had any direct agency in its excesses ; indeed his department 
has been almost if not altogether, exclusively that of finance ; 
nor in strict justice ought the reactions referred to be attributed 
to any portion of the king's ministry, or to his cabinet collect- 
ively, or even to Ferdinand's own temper and policy ; they 
are, in a greater or lesser degree, the indefectible results of all 
" restorations." If then Mr Erro, amongst others the most dis- 
tinguished of his fellow-subjects, has lent his aid to the restora- 
tion of the royal authority in Spain, we must presume that he 
has acted on a more intimate knowledge of his country, the 
character of its inhabitants, and of their incapacity to receive 
and maintain republican institutions, than we can pretend to ; 
and if his judgment on this point has been proved to have been 
correct, then certainly he will be excused, if tempted by per- 
sonal considerations, he has not rejected the honors which have 
been offered to him ; he is not the first who has sacrificed 
the pursuits of philosophy to those of ambition, nor will he be 
the last probably. It may well happen also, that exceptions 
will be taken to some portions, or to some of the forms of my 
author's argument where it necessarily rests on, or is connected 
with, the Mosaic history ; the matter might certainly have been 
treated independent of that authority, and probably with at least 
equal effect; but Mr Erro is a catholic; that fact apart, lie is 
not a solitary example of a philosopher modifying his principles, 
and accommodating his system, whether from fear or benevo- 
lence, so as to avoid offence to received doctrines, or shocking 
prevailing prejudices : independent of all such considerations, 



it is evident that in countries where priests rule, all philosophical 
and metaphysical discussion must have an orthodox basis to 
entitle it to a passport from the church, without this it cannot 
proceed : Mr Erro wrote in a country where there was an 
inquisition, with an imprimatur, a double headed monster, 
who keeps incessant watch at the portal of the intellectual 
elysium. 

I have thought that some account of the system of this learned 
philologist, might be acceptable in the United States, where 
certainly the philosophy of language is cultivated by men of as 
high qualification in that most important department of^cience, 
as are any to be found in Europe : — to these then I present the 
following extracts from the principal works of Mr Erro, — viz : 
" Alfabeto de la lengua primitiva" and " El mundo primitivo" 
a work not yet completed. I abridge also very considerably of 
the argument in some of the portions extracted, for reasons 
which it is proper here to explain. — As my author had to sup- 
port doctrines entirely new, against general and deep-rooted 
prejudices, and all classical authority, and to meet an opposition 
neither feeble nor liberal from several cotemporary writers of 
no mean capacity,* he was obliged to labor his subject, — to 

* As a specimen of this polemic illiberally, I may particularize an opinion 
given by Mr Lecluse, undoubtedly a very learned man, since he is professor 
of Hebrew and Greek literature at Toulouse in France : — this gentleman who 
has constructed a grammar of the basque language, attempts by a few flippant 
phrases to set aside all the pretensions of Larramendi, Astarloa, Erro, and 
other learned Basques, — and not only denies that their language has an alpha- 
bet now, but doubts whether it ever had an alphabet ; these are his words, 
" le fait est que cette langue n'a point oV alphabet, du moins que lui soit 
ptopre. , II est possible qu'clie en ait eu, tela mem c est tres croyable, si il 
est vrai que la basque ait ete la langue univeraelle de V antique Iberie ;" 
it does not appear how the probability that the basque language had an alpha- 
bet formerly, is affected by the question whether or not it was the idiom used 
throughout the peninsula at any given epoch ; and on the supposition that it 
had an alphabet because it was the " universal language of Iberia " Mr 
Lecluse should have offered to us at least a conjecture, aa to how its alphabet 
could have been lost, since the very fact that the language was universal, 
the only ground on which he will admit the supposition that it had an alpha- 
bet, augments the probability that the same alphabet would have been pre- 
served. It is indeed most extraordinary that Mr Lecluse, even whilst 
speaking of Mr Erro's u alfabeto de la lengua primitiva" should venture to 
make problematical a fact which is so indisputably proved by that very work ; 
materially proved by fac-similies of fifty coins, all with basque inscriptions 



VI 

insist on a variety of subsidiary matter with an exuberance of 
reasoning, which were fatiguing to readers in general, — which 
is not essential to my limited purpose, — and which I have the 
less repugnance in curtailing, since all opposition to him has 
ceased. — Proposing then to give merely a general view, or an 
outline of his system, with as much only of his reasoning and 
proof as is indispensable to the full understanding of it, I have 
omitted of the first work all that relates to the ancient religion 
of Spain, — to the invention of coining, and other matters curious 
and interesting, but not essential to my purpose ; — as also the 
application of the alphabet to the explanation of the inscriptions 
on coins and other monuments of high antiquity found in the 
basque provinces ; I could not have made any useful selection 
from that part of the work, which would not have required basque 
types. In extracting from the second work I have taken still 
greater liberty with the author, for as the reader will observe, 
his principal thesis so bold and entirely original, yet free from 
all dogmatism, must needs have required for its support a variety 
and profusion of discussion which admits of much abridgment ; 
I have curtailed also the elucidations of it in its application to 
ancient geography and the origin of legislation, and thus con- 
cluded my extract with the explanation of the numeral system, 
abridging however very considerably the author's developments 
of the Pythagorean philosophy derived from that system, by 
omitting the greater part of those absurdities and metaphysical 
illusions disgusting to readers in general, and which at this day 
are held in no great respect even by metaphysicians; yet I have 
inserted as much of this as appeared essential to the proof, that 
the power attributed to numbers by Pythagoras, and after him 
by Plato, had its origin in an imperfect tradition of the primi- 
tive philosophy. Though I must allow that the fatigue of 

in basque loiters, besides the vase of Castulo, the famous stone ofSaguntum, 
the earthen jar of Trigueros, (Ik; .stone of Clnnia, and other similar monu- 
ments, all having basque legends; hence we* are forced lo conclude that Mr 
Lecluse never saw Erro'a hook, one half at least of which is occupied by the 
most complete and satisfactory explanation of those legends. 



Vll 

translating abstruse metaphysical conceptions, (after having suc- 
ceeded in penetrating their obscurity) so as to give to them the 
best form of which they are susceptible in another language, has 
in some passages rather encouraged this disposition to abridge, 
yet I think that I might have carried it further without prejudice 
to the main argument of the author. I will not boast (as is the 
common practice) of the " fidelity," or " special care" which 
has been employed in this translation ; of its accuracy those 
who have an opportunity of consulting the original works will 
judge for themselves ; but it is incumbent on me to assure the 
general reader, that though I have translated freely and hastily, 
I have not perverted the sense of the author ; I trust indeed, 
that by lopping off some redundancies of the argument, I may 
have made it more acceptable : withal I am aware that there 
may be still found in Mr Erro's reasoning, positions not per- 
fectly clear and satisfactory under a severe examination ; yet 
after rejecting all that the most fastidious criticism can take 
exception to, there will yet remain I trust, more especially in 
his analysis of the letters, sufficient of solid incontrovertible 
proof of the principal fact to be established by the " Alfabeto," 
viz : that the Greek alphabet has been taken from the Euscaran, 
and not from the Phcenecian, as has hitherto been generally 
believed on the authority of the ancient writers :* the precise 

* Ancient history, so called, is full of confusions, where it is not fabulous ; 
how little reliance then can be placed on its authority groping in the darkness 
of the primitive ages. Herodotus, called the " father of history," is the first 
authority for this story of Cadmus, but he speaks of an epoch a thousand 
years before his own time, when the Greeks were in a state of barbarism. 
Lecluse the French author before mentioned, after telling us that the Phcene- 
cian language was a dialect of the Hebrew, and showing that the Greek 
alphabet is no other than the Hebrew, falls into the common tract of authority 
as to the story of Cadmus, though as he at the same time explains " Cadim" 
in Hebrew to signify the East, and " Cadmoni" oriental, he leads to a very 
natural presumption that the expedition of Cadmus was but an allegory. 
The leader will observe that Mr Erro has not availed himself of these 
etymologies, as in a certain view he might have done with advantage to his 
argument; he has reasoned on the less favorable supposition, that the Phce- 
ne.-ian prince did exist; possibly from submission to that sort of conventional 
authority belonging to the Grecian and Roman authors, which men of a 
" classical education" are the last to question : herein is a principal disad- 
vantage of a classical education, the blind veneration which it produces for 
all the absurdities of antiquity; wholly authoritative, it dispenses with the 



Vlll 

period in which the Euscaran alphabet was formed is not 
equally evident ; its anteriority to the Phoenecian or Hebrew 
does not, nor does even its philosophical construction, wholly 
settle this point ; yet as we are without any history or tradition 
which can enable us to approach by reasonable conjecture the 
period of its invention, Mr Erro's reasoning with a view to this 
object is admissible in its full extent. It is only by deciphering 
the legends and hieroglyphics on ancient monuments, that we can 
attain the least acquaintance with events anterior to history ; the 
author's method is no other than this ; by his examination of the 
coins, vases, &tc. found in the basque provinces, it is proved beyond 
the possibility of doubt, that the first settlers of that country had 
an alphabet ; its high antiquity is proved by an analysis of its 
letters ; its origin, or in other words the invention of the art of 
writing, is most reasonably inferred to have preceded by many 
ages the first settlement of Spain ; was it coeval with the forma- 
tion of the language ? this question is comprised in the argu- 
ment on the antiqueness of that language : the purpose of Mr 
Erro's second work (El Mundo primitivo) is to prove the Eus- 
caran to have been antideluvian ; if that language existed at 
the time of the dispersion it was doubtless the language of 
Noah; then still following as authority the Mosaic narration, it 
must have been the language of Adam ; and then its philosophi- 
cal perfection abundantly suffices to prove that it was infused, or 
given to the first man simultaneously with his being. Whatever 
may be thought of this argument, it must be allowed that the 
author's method is highly ingenious, and his reasoning very forci- 

useof the reasoning faculty in matters of history, thus disqualifying its disci- 
ples for the discovery of truths, and too frequently rendering them inimical to 
the discoveries of others ; this same classic devotion is one cause of the sec- 
ondary or insufficient attention given to the mathematics, which ought to be 
the corner stone, the very basis of all education. Amongst the many errors in 
history corrected by etymology, is that which from a similarity in the sound 
of names makes the Iberians to be descendants from the Hebrews, into 
which nation Mr Lecluse (as professor of Hebrew doubtless) seems disposed 
to dissolve all others; the two names had a common origin probably, but 
that only because the nations who first had fixed residences call^all the others, 
still migratory," Iberi," wanderers; such were the Jews before their entry 
into Europe, such probably the Euscaldunes before their entry into Spain. 



/ 



IX 

ble ; his analysis of the basque numeration, on a mistaken concep- 
tion of which it is made perfectly evident that the Pythagorean 
philosophy was founded, gives to his system a basis of such solidity, 
as must command the respect even of scepticism. This system 
admitted, surely no philosophic speculation can excite so high 
an interest, for (in the author's words) " it opens a communica- 
tion, and forms a link of connexion with the primeval ages ;" 
it supplies the only means of any acquaintance with the state 
of civilization in the commencement of human society; for 
though it be allowed that the Mosaic Genesis is authority be- 
cause it was inspired, and in this view it is necessarily con- 
sidered by Mr Erro, yet this contains but a succinct account 
of the creation, and a rapid sketch of the growth of society, 
(all comprised within six chapters) but teaches nothing as to its 
intellectual progress or acquirements previous to the deluge. 

*The deluge is a fact, not depending on history, inspired or 
Uninspired, and not because found in the traditions of all nations, 
but the material physical proofs of which are visible in its relics 
dispersed over the whole globe : — we know also without the aid 
of history or tradition, and notwithstanding whatever may have 
been taught to the contrary, what must have been the moral 
results of that catastrophe ; that it must have laid waste all the 
works of man, all that had been accumulated by his genius, 
as by his labor, reducing him to the state of a miserable 
wanderer on the face of a devastated earth scarcely supplying 
him with the means of continuing his wretched existence ; wholly 
occupied with his physical sufferings and wants, his intellectual 
condition was but little superior to that of the brute creation ; 
from that state of degradation he could not have emerged but 
by very slow degrees through a long course of ages; nay, when 
we observe the different degrees of civilization now existing 

* There may have heen many universal deluges, according to the opinion 
of Cuvier and other geologists' reasoning on fossil remains ; — I refer in this 
place only to those ruins which we find on the surface of the earth, or in its 
upper strata. These, it is evident, are of the last deluge ; the only one in 
which our species was concerned, as they suppose. 



amongst the different societies which inhabit the earth, perhaps 
it were not unreasonable to conclude, that herein also the effects 
of the deluge are still apparent ; — how otherwise account for 
such wide distinctions in the condition of man who by the con- 
stitution of nature is everywhere physically and morally the same 
being.* 

By the deluge then, and by the dark ages which followed it, 
we have hitherto been shut out from all means of acquiring any 
acquaintance with the intellectual condition of the first societies; 
Mr Erro's system passing through this night of time, mounts up 
to its very dawn, and there he finds the origin of his language 
in the transcendant perfection of its construction : — admitting 
his analytical expositions, we arrive necessarily at one of these 
two conclusions, — either that this perfect idiom together with 
the science embraced by it, was infused by the Creator, — or 
that the intellectual power of the first societies of men was infi- 
nitely superior to that in any period known to history, — which 
were in effect to suppose the primeval man to have had a less 
defective organization than that which belongs to the species at 
this time. 

Certainly, if the Mosaic account of the creation is correct, and 
this the author supposes, he could not offer a stronger argu-ment 
in favor of his opinion — no other is wanting than this ; God 
ordered Adam to give suitable names to all the animals ; this sup- 
poses in Adam a previous and perfect acquaintance with nature. 
But the relation of Moses apart, the argument in favor of Mr 
Erro's opinions furnished by the philosophical perfection of 
the language which he examines, seems to be of sufficient force, 
— for it is the only language of such a character : — all the idioms 
now in use, though centuries have been employed in the im- 
provement of them, are full of imperfections, — how then can it 

* This same consideration would seem to authorize an opinion, notwith- 
standing the theories of the geologists, that our race has suffered by more 
than one deluge ; that the deluges have been partial and not universal ; and 
that amongst the last of these vast commotions, may have been one on this 
continent. I have somewhere seen a conjecture that our chain of lakes are 
but the remains of a flood. 



XI 



be supposed that man in his infancy was able to form a perfect 
language ! for those who adopt the Jewish chronology this the 
author's argument is slill more positive, for according to that 
computation, from the creation to the deluge was a period of 
only sixteen hundred years ; too short a period certainly for 
such a wonderful intellectual progress as the formation of a 
perfect language supposes j and this is still more evident when 
we consider what was the state of science at the coming of 
Christ, 2384 years after the deluge ; and even what it is at this 
time 1900 years later ; this last period too including nearly 400 
years of a progress unexampled in rapidity. If the high anti- 
quity of the basque language is satisfactorily proved by its phi- 
losophical perfection, then, as it is impossible to admit the sup- 
position of its having been formed by the geuius of man, we 
cannot altogether withhold our assent to Mr Erro's conclusion ; — 
and surely there is not anything shocking to our reason in the 
proposition : — there must have been an existence before man 
existed, — the cause of his existence ; — man then was created ; — 
he is evidently the most perfect work (the combination of moral 
and physical faculties considered) of the whole creation ; — it is 
evident also that he was made social, consequently must have 
been created in society ; a language then must have been an 
ingredient in his constitution, a language corresponding in the 
perfection of its structure with the other attributes of his nature, 
and in harmony with the other creations of the first cause. 

The author's assertion, that no language with which we are 
acquainted has been formed like the Euscaran of natural ele- 
ments, cannot be disputed ; thus we see that no living language 
is fixed, all are more or less conventional, and subjected to per- 
petual alterations ; this is so true, that the idioms of the nations 
most advanced in civilization, now so much vary from what they 
were some few centuries ago, as to be scarcely cognizable in 
the early writers ; and some of our own writers, even of a com- 
paratively late date, cannot be understood without a glossary. 
This multiplicity of imperfect and ever varying languages, has 



Xll 

been used in argument against Mr Erro's system ; but the fact 
when duly considered, ought rather to operate in his favor ; for 
firstly we are able to trace by etymology the derivation of some 
from others of these languages, and secondly because in most 
of them have been discovered some radical characteristics which 
countenance the opinion that they all had a common origin ; — 
and again, it were absurd to suppose that man when created 
was gifted with many languages, whilst nothing is more reason- 
able than to conclude that the Creator gave to him one language 
adequate to all his purposes : — the deluge and its necessary 
effects will account very satisfactorily for the loss of that primi- 
tive language, and for the formation of other idioms ; the remains 
of a primitive language found in these, at the same time that it 
proves them to be derivative, authorizes the search after, be- 
cause it affords a possibility of discovering the primitive entire. 
And again, as to the probability that language was infused, is it 
not strengthened when we consider the imperfections of all the 
languages which have been formed by man subsequent to the 
deluge, — it would appear then that the formation of a perfect 
language is beyond the faculty of man. It will not be denied 
but that a fixed order and rule of action was given in the crea- 
tion to all its elements, in man as well as throughout nature,— 
in other words that the creation was complete ; can language 
an essential principle in the nature of man have been made an 
exception ? 

It is a gloomy and wretchedly hopeless doctrine which some 
philosophers have founded on an observation of what is com- 
monly called the " savage state ," assimilating our species to that 
of the brute ; — teaching that we are distinguished from it only 
by the faculty of cultivating our intellect, and that all the advan- 
tages which we possess over the brutes have resulted merely 
from the long continued exercise of that faculty. — Surely no 
proposition is more incontestible than this, that man is the most 
perfect work of the animated creation ; it is impossible then to 



Xlll 



admit the supposition that society commenced in the " savage 
state," for this is not having a defined limit, the hypothesis if 
admitted would carry us back to a condition infinitely inferior 
to that of the lowest species of the brute creation ; — if then we 
find in some regions tribes of savages in a state of physical misery 
and destitution, or of intellectual ineptitude or imbecility, render- 
ing them in all respects inferior to the brute creation, we must 
consider such a state to be a degradation, however produced, 
from a " state of nature" the state in which the Creator origin- 
ally placed our species. Is it not then perfectly philosophic, 
to consider the " savage state " as a consequence of the deluge ; 
and is it not equally philosophic as we'l as consolatory, to con- 
clude that man, so superior to all other animals in his organiza- 
tion, was created in the full and complete exercise and enjoy- 
ment of all his faculties physical and moral ; on this plan all the 
inferior animals have been made, why not man the most perfect ; 
can it be supposed that he was cast forth into the world to im- 
prove his intellect, or to perish in ignorance as chance might 
direct 3 and without even the instinct of the brute to supply the 
place of the knowledge which was withheld from him, and 
which though indispensable to his well being, he could not ac- 
quire but after a painful existence through many generations. 

The " savage state" then is not a " state of nature," but an 
accident; the learned researches of our American philologists 
have made it evident that the remote ancestry of our Indian 
tribes have been a "civilized" people; it is presumable that 
similar success may hereafter result from similar investigations 
of the languages used by the still more barbarous tribes of Asia 
and Africa. 

Mr Morenas a learned orientalist, (of France) treating this 
subject (in the Revue Encyclopedique) cites the authority of 
professor Vater, to prove that our Indian idioms have a great 
analogy with the " tchusktschi " in Asia, ivith the Congo in 
Africa, and with the basque in Europe ; this analogy is in what 



XIV 

are considered as Hebrew roots.* Lord Montboddo (on lan- 
guage) mentions a dictionary and grammar of the language of 
the Garani a people of Paraguay, this was made by a Jesuit 
and published in Madrid (1639.) it shows that the language of 
the Garani is as regularly constructed as any European language, 
and that in many respects it is superior to all of them ; amongst 
its excellences is a first person plural inclusive, that is, which 
includes the speaker and the person spoken to ; as also another 
exclusive, or excluding the person spoken toj- : Lord M. observes, 
" / think it impossible that they who have made so little progress 
in the other arts of life should have invented so complete a lan- 
guage :" he makes a similar remark on the language of the 
Algonquins, a language of a most curious and scientific con- 
struction he says ; there have been strange migrations and mix- 
tures of nations at different periods, and indeed there is hardly 
any thing that we can conceive to be possible that has not hap- 
pened in a long course of time ; this is an observation of Hero- 
dotus. The same Lord Montboddo speaking of the Celtic 
language observes, " it is spread over a great part of the world 
and is to be found in places so remote from each other, as to 
show that there must have been a most extraordinary intercourse 
and communication amongst men in ancient times." He then 
goes on to state a highly interesting fact reported to him by a 
certain learned French Jesuit ; one of the priests of the mis- 
sion to which that Jesuit was attached, having lost his way in 
the woods, strayed into the country of the Esquimaux, and 

*Eusebius in his " Evangelical Preparation," speaking of the Hebrew 
letters, observes, that they are the only signs which have significant names; 
hence he infers that they are the most ancient ; — this same characteristic in 
the basque letters (from which the Hebrew were derived) is the basis of Mr 
Erro's system. 

*'/L»W3^ t By the late investigations of our American philologists, it is found that a 

plural in this form, and also a dual, are general characteristics of the Indian 
languages of this continent; as they are in all (he languages of the South 
sea inlanders. In the Cherokee language many other peculiarities are to be 
observed, and some excellences which fully entitle it to partake with the 
Garani of Lord Montboddo's encomium ; amongst the most remarkable of 
these excellences, is the division of nouns into two classes, one applying to 
animate, and the other to inanimate objects. 






XV 

there resided long enough to learn their language ; he then left 
them and returned to the French settlement ; sometime after- 
wards, happening to go on board a ship of his nation, he met 
with a basque sailor with whom he entered into conversation, 
and he found to his great astonishment, that he was able to un- 
derstand the sailor's basque, and that the sailor understood 
equally well his Esquimaux language; from this the priest in- 
ferred that the basque was a dialect of the Celtic language ; if 
the exact truth in this narrative is merely that the two languages 
were found to have many words in common, this is a fact of 
sufficient importance in the argument. 

I have been induced to dwell on this opinion, that what is 
called " the savage state" is a consequence of the deluge, and 
not " the state of nature," more than would seem to be proper 
in a preface, by an earnest desire to bespeak all the reader's 
attention to the reasoning of Mr Erro as far as it affects this 
point ; and to predispose his mind to receive with favor a sys- 
tem, the principal beauty of which, (in my view) is, that it 
goes to prove the proper " state of nature ," to have been a 
state of civilization, and of the highest intellectual cultivation of 
which our species is susceptible. " Fixing our view (says the 
author in his prologue) by means of the Euscaran language on 
ages anterior to the deluge, w 7 e shall observe that the doctrine of 
universal motion is not a discovery ^Egyptian or Babylonian ; 
we shall see a system unknown to the moderns, a beautiful sim- 
ple system, embracing by the same laws the movement of the 
heavenly bodies, and the vegetation of the most humble plants; 
comprehending under a few general causes the entire empire of 
nature, wholly free from the absurdity of our methods, in which 
the multitude of rules constantly imagined to explain her ope- 
rations, prove only how far we have deviated from the simple 
principles by which she preserves the universe. We shall see 
that long before the existence of Copernican philosophers, the 
first societies knew that the sun was fixed in the centre of the 
universe ; that it was neither Hippocrates, nor Harvey, who dis- 



XVI 

covered the circulation of the blood ; that in the doctrine of 
generation principles were admitted, which even to this day our 
physical science is unacquainted with ; that the year was regu- 
lated to 3G5 clays calculating from the winter solstice ; that be- 
fore there were iElgpytians, the Zodiac was invented ; and that 
before such persons as Pythagoras and Plato were known, the 
harmony of numbers, and the order and proportion in which 
they stood in the plan of nature by the disposal of the Supreme 
Creator, were perfectly understood." 

It will not escape the reader's observation, that the author's 
philosophical investigations have been restricted by considera- 
tions belonging to a respect for sacred history, and that his ar- 
gument so limited, is at times somewhat controled by the 
Mosaic relation : it is evident that his system if developed toils 
utmost extent, might endanger a great many opinions which are 
now fixed, and considered to be salutary ; a perfect language ex- 
isting at the creation, must have been the language of the Crea- 
tor, and therefore have contained all truth ; a complete analysis 
which should expose those truths, would necessarily destroy by 
its paramount authority all the systems of man's invention. Be 
this as it may, it is fit that on this delicate point we should 
receive the author's own explanation of his reserve, and admit 
as sufficient the reasons which he has assigned for the bounds 
given to his discussions. 

" As regards the proofs in the argument of this work, (says 
he) though I might have carried to as great a degree of certi- 
tude the examination of other sciences not herein alluded to, I 
have rather chosen as evidence of the antiquity and superior 
excellence of the basque language overall the languages of the 
earth, such matter, as at the same time that it suffices for my 
purpose, serves to confirm the great plan of our august religion, 
and the relation of the first events of the world as left to us by 
the sacred historian Moses ; thus dissipating those ridiculous 
and fabulous pretensions of some extravagant and unreflecting 
authors, who in these modern times have attempted to confound 



XV11 

and obscure our worship, and at the same time manifesting the 
true origin of the ancient cosmogonies and theogonies, and of 
the mystery of the holy fables of the gentiles to which so much 
importance has been attached as a means of assailing religion ; 
as though the indestructable foundations of that august work 
could depend on the chimeras and extravagances of human 
reason." 

Some modern author has said "the construction of language 
is in itself the history of the people to whom it belongs :" cer- 
tain it is that analysis in language is the only means by which 
we can acquire any knowledge of ages unknown to history ; 
hence the immense importance of philological investigation* : 
in that persuasion, and observing the growing taste in the United 
States for this branch of philosophy; under the encouragement 
also of a distinguished scholar, whose labors have principally 
contributed to its advancement, I submit to the learned in a 
succinct form, the claims of the basque to be considered as the 
primitive language of the human race, the only perfect language; 
or in the author's words, " a faithful copy of nature ; an irresist- 
ible witness to the most remote events, and an archive of the 
precious acquirements of the first ages." 

GEORGE W. ERVING. 

Boston, July 15, 1829. 

* Doctor Murray in his " History of European Languages," well observes, 
that the " advantages which have accrued to history, religion, the philosophy 
of the mind, and the progress of society, the benefits which have resulted 
from the Greek and Roman taste, in short, all that a knowledge of the pro- 
gress and attainments of man in past ages canbestoiv on the present, has 
reached it through the medium of philology. 



JVOTE 



OF 



AUTHORS IN THE BASQUE LANGUAGE. 



The greater part of the writers in the basque language are men- 
tioned by Mr Erro ; (Part I, chap, i and v,) viz: — Don Luis Velasquez, 
Don Juan Francisco Andres, the Jesuit Rajas, Don Francisco de La 
Huerta, the Jesuits Larramendi and Torreros, Luis Carlos Zuniga, 
Boyer, and Don Pablo Pedro de Astarloa. 

Besides these I cannot find that there have been more than four 
authors of any reputation ; i. e. D'lharce, Harriet, Etcheberri, and 
Izluela. 

Those who have written more especially on the excellences of the 
basque language, are, (besides Erro,) Larramendi, Astarloa, and 
D'lharce ; Larramendi also published a dictionary in 1745 ; another 
dictionary was made by Etcheberri ; Izluela printed at St Sebastians 
in 1824 a very curious work on .the ancient usages, dances, games, 
&c, of Guipuscoa, with this title ; " Guipuscoaco dantza gogoangarien 
condaira, edo istoria beren sonu zar, eta itz neurto edo versoaquin." 

Larramendi in his time knew but of ten books printed in pure basque, 
and all of them were on religious matters, viz :-^-Two Catechisms, 
published in 1733; Imitation of Jesus Christ, in 1720; Hymns, 1630; 
Manual of Devotion; Spiritual Exercises; Sermons by Pedro Argana- 
ratz, 1141; Christian Doctrine, 1626; Prayers and Hymns, 1686; 
Prayers, &c. by Materre, 1616, and a work on Penitence, by Axular, 
1642. 

There were several other books of the same character published in 
various provinces where the language was not so pure. The first 
book in point of date is not mentioned b^ Larramendi, it was a com- 
plete translation of the New Testament printed at Rochelle in 1571. 



XIX 

Astarloa engaged in an analysis of the words of the basque lan- 
guage ; and in this hopeless task he persevered till the day of his 
death, with a zeal almost incredible, when we consider what he says 
himself of the copiousness of that language ; he asserts, (as quoted 
by Lecluse) that it has 4,126,564,929 words ! not comprising ary hav- 
ing more than three syllables ! and these are in no small quantity ; 
" quatro mille ciento veinte y seism.llones, quinientassesentay quatro 
mil novecientas veinte y nueve voces monosilabas, disilabas, y trisila- 
bas ; en este calculo no entran voces de mayor numero de silabas," 
(says he.) Of this immensity of words he was not able to complete 
the analysis of more than 10,000 in ten years. Here is a calculation 
which goes infinitely beyond the most extravagant estimate of the most 
extravagant of the Chinese literati ; (this, now indeed reduced to 
20,000 jnonosyllables,) by what method or mathematical process Mr 
Astarloa was able to reach such a result, is, I allow, wholly incon- 
ceivable ; yet if the language approaches in any degree to the vast 
copiousness which he ascribes to it, hence I think may be drawn the 
strongest argument in favor of its primitive character, and of its having 
been infused ; for the possibility of its having been formed by man, is 
yet more remote ; and the probability that it embraced every species 
of knowledge, is augmented ; and thus no small portion of the abund- 
ant and learned labors which have appeared on the origin and affinity 
of languages, with the various inferences which have been drawn from 
them as to the derivation of some nations from others, and finally the 
ancient pretensions of the Celtic, Teutonic, Persic, and Sanscrit 
idioms — all these vanish before the superior importance, or are dis- 
solved in the superior and well established claims of the Basque. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

CHAPTER I. 
Some Account of the Attempts heretofore made to Explain the Primi- 
tive Alphabetical Characters of Spain, and to Interpret its Inscriptions 
and Medals, "i " - --"--'-■. 1 

CHAPTER II. 
On the Antiqueness of the Art of Writing, 5 

CHAPTER III. 

On the Origin of Writing and the Antiqueness of the Celtiberian Alpha- 
bet, -------- 10 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Error of those who have expected to find in the Phoenecian and 
Grecian Languages and Alphabets the Origin of the Alphabet and 
Idiom of Primitive Spain, - - - 16 

CHAPTER V. 
The Greek Alphabet is not of Phoenecian but of Spanish Origin. - 19 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Demonstration that the Greek Alphabet is derived from the Basque, 26 

CHAPTER VII. 

Application of the Preceding Observations. 36 



XX11 



PART II. 



CHAPTER I. 

On the Attempts of some Learned Men to discover the Primitive 
Language ; and on the singular Character and Perfection of that 
Language, ....... 39 

CHAPTER II. 

The Primitive Language was infused by the Creator and not formed by 
Man, -------- 46 

CHAPTER III. 

The Confusion of Babel cannot be opposed as a Proof against the Exist- 
ence of the Primitive Language, - - - - 51 

CHAPTER IV. 

Solution of some Objections to the foregoing Opinions, - 54 

CHAPTER V. 

Of the Rules necessary to be observed in the Analysis of Words, and of 
the true Euphony, ------ 55 

CHAPTER VI. 
Of Numbers, or the first Part of the System of the Universe. Its Mat- 
ter, 62 

CHAPTER VII. 

Of Numbers — in Continuation. On the Soul of the Universe, or the 
Principles and Laws of its Movements, - - 74 



PART I 



CHAPTER I. 

Some Account of the Attempts heretofore made to Explain the 
primitive Alphabetical Characters of Spain, and to Interpret 
its Inscriptions and Medals. 

There are but few literary subjects which in these latter 
times have more occupied, — though with such few solid re- 
sults, the researches of men of genius, than the laborious and 
dry study of the ancient monuments of Spain. Juan iV n dres 
Estran, the archbishop of Tarragona, Antonio Augustin, Ber- 
nardo Alderte, Uztarroz, Flores, and a number of other Span- 
iards well known in the republic of letters, as well as some 
foreigners of equal merit, after much and studious investiga- 
tion, have been obliged to abandon the pursuit ; — the most 
persevering of them arriving at merely plausible conjecture, 
proving nothing, or adventuring on interpretations unsatisfactory 
to the learned world, and probably even to themselves. 

Nevertheless the labors of some of these distinguished 
scholars deserve special mention, as having been to a certain 
small degree productive, though not so in proportion to their 
meritorious efforts. 

Don Luis Velasquez was able to discover some Cekiberian 
letters, but as to others he was wholly perplexed, so that his 
alphabet is full of errors. Doctor Don Juan Francisco Andres, 
the Jesuit Rajas and Don Francisco de la Huerta, these origin- 
ated, the opinion that the inscriptions on the Celtiberic-coins 
were primitive Spanish letters ; the Jesuits Larremendi and 
Terreros advanced a little further, and ventured to assert — 
that these were basque characters, — which opinion they main- 
1 



tained in the firm persuasion that the original language of Spain 
had been the basque. The subject remained in this state till 
the year 1S01, when the priest Luis Carlos Zuniga published 
a paper, in which he attempted to explain the inscriptions on 
some coins, but without any considerable success, for he was 
deficient in the knowledge of the basque language. Jacob 
Barry, Dutch consul at Seville, also endeavored to explain some 
of the characters — on certain Betican coins. It appears by 
his correspondence that he considered these " turdetanian 
characters to be very easy of explanation" but from the mis- 
takes which he made it is evident that he did not understand 
the idiom ; — the fact is, that in his time this study occupied the 
attention of many learned men, Mr Barry was ambitious of 
appearing amongst them, but being totally unqualified, he failed 
to produce any thing worth notice. Boyer was not more for- 
tunate in his attempt to explain the Celiiberian characters; his 
alphabet and interpretations are very defective and incorrect. 
In fine, a genuine explication of the Spanish medals and in- 
scriptions is at present an enigma which the discordances of 
the learned who have attempted a solution have served still 
further to perplex. This is one of those secrets buried under 
a mass of prejudice still sustained by some of the most in- 
genious writers, who have not hesitated to pronounce it to be " a 
secret* never to be discovered ;" — " which has been always 
and must still remain unknown ;" — " which is in a language 
now lost," &c. thus contributing to discourage others from an 
attempt to elucidate it. 

Notwithstanding these assertions, and the little confidence 
which I may have in my own limited capacity of making any 
very important progress in a matter which the most learned 
antiquarians have been obliged to abandon in despair ; yet I 
engage in it not without hope of overcoming its difficulties, be- 
ing persuaded that the disappointment of those who have gone 
before me has been wholly owing to their imperfect acquaint- 
ance with the basque language. 

The commencement of my investigations was in 179S, when 
by a rare accident I became possessed of several Celtiberian 
coins, and though 1 was then aware of the great labor" which 
many learned men had fruitlessly employed in the interpreta- 
tion of similar monuments, yet my vehement desire of deci- 
phering them overcame all discouraging considerations, and 
impelled me to encounter the difficulties and obscurities to be 
removed before I could establish my system on solid principles, 



and found on it some progress in this branch of antiquarian 
research. During the same year, I happened to visit the city 
of Soria ; its position is in ancient Celiiberia, surrounded by 
the ruins of many other cities which were formerly of impor- 
tance ; there I was enabled to collect a considerable number of 
ancient coins, which together with some drawings and plates 
of old collections, and the comparison of these with my coins, 
afforded sufficient light to enable me to form a clear idea of the 
true import of the primitive signs, — as shall be more particularly 
explained hereafter. 

*The Basques will certainly see with great satisfaction, those 
primitive characters by which their illustrious ancestors trans- 

*The reader will find that throughout this work — " Basques" and Eus- 
caldunes" are denominations indiscriminately made use of by the author to 
designate the same people ; it will also be observed that in some places the 
language is called basque and in other places Euscaran ; — it is proper there- 
fore to explain this variety : — it may have been here and there employed 
merely to change the diction, but the name basque has been more frequently 
used because more familiar to the ear, being modern as well as ancient. The 
Euscaran language (with some differences in dialect) extended over the 
greater part of Spain, — it is now confined to a few mountainous provinces 
on either side of the Pyrennes, inhabited by the descendants of the Euscal- 
dunes; — these are all called " basques," their original provincial name still 
preserved; — hence the propriety of the same denomination applied to the 
language. 

The Etymology of these and some other names has been furnished to me by 
Don Jose Francisco de Aizquebel a learned basque now residing in Paris — 
in a note of which the following is a translation. 

" The basque language is called Euskera — its etymology— is in the word 
*' Eusk-i — which means the Sun — and the word — era — which signifies 
mode or manner •, — taken together — manner of the Sun — or of the East ; 
for in the Euscaran language " Sun" is often used to denote the " East." 
The words — " Euskara" — " Euskaera" are also used. 

" Euskeldunack (the basque people) has its etymology in the word eusker 
—and the relative participle dunak or duenak — which means those who 
hold or possess — that is to say those who hold or possess the Euskara (or 
basque language. ) 

Note. " This single word which fixes and determines the origin of our 
nation, leaves me without doubt as to the oriental origin, of our ancestors." 

" Basco is a syncope of Baso-ko and is derived from Base — woods (or 
forests) — and ko of—that is, of the forests — from this has been formed the 
Castillan word Bascongada (Basque.) 

" Bizkaya — is derived from biz — or piz (foam, spume) and kaya (port or 
gulph) — thatis to say z" foamy girfph" — applied to the tempestuous char- 
acter of the sea on the whole coast of Canitabria. 

" JVavana — is derived from the word nava (plain) and arra (inhabitant) 
— that is, inhabitants of the plain in contradistinction to — Basco — or of the 
forests. 

" Erdcra this is the name which we give to the Castillan language and it 
is derived either from Erdu-era or Erdi-cra — if from Erdu (arrived or 
come) — and era (manner) — then it says — in the manner of the comers, 
alluding to the Phoeneeians and Carthagcnians or other nations who entered 
into Spain subsequently to the Euscaldunes, — if the second is the true ety- 



ferred to metal and stone their ideas, in the very language 
which we still use : — herein will be a new proof of the high 
antiquity of their origin, and of the possession of the country 
which they now inhabit ; a possession more ancient than can 
be boasted of by any nation in the world. Spaniards in gen- 
eral will learn what was the universal language of their country, 
and the origin of its first settlers; and if hitherto a captious 
criticism has required of us to produce in monuments, medals 
and inscriptions, proofs of the antiquity of our Euscaran lan- 
guage in Spain, — this cavil shall now cease to have any weight, 
for I will prove that the most ancient monuments which our 
nation possess, are basque ; basque the characters engraved on 
them ; and basque the primitive religion represented by the 
figures hitherto so erroneously interpreted.* 

mology then it is Erdi (middle) and era (manner) and means — meridional 
manner, referring to the Sun in the middle of its course." 

" As to the word Euscaldunes — this means those who use the Euscaran 
language, duna — in basque is he who uses." 

It may be well to add here the explanation which I have received from 
the same gentleman of a few other words which will be frequently met 
with in the following pages. 

" Celtibtrian , ' > — refers to that territory which lays south of the Ebro 
beginning with Old Castile — it is derived from celt — (beyond) — and iber 
which is the proper name of the river. 

" Betica" — which is a part of Celtiveria (now Andalusia) has its etymolo- 
gy in — Be (low) — the letter t is Euphonical merely, and ica (country) — 
the low country. 

" Turdetania" — (or Turtetania) this is a part of what is now called 
Murcia. 

" Laburtania" — is that territory on the French side of the Pyrennes 
which the Spaniards call the country of Labor, the French Labour or La- 
bourt — and it extends from the Bidaossa to the Landes — the name is composed 
with the word Labur or Lapur — which means a robber. 

It would seem that the Basques considered all the population of the French 
side of the Pyrennes in no favorable point of view, thus what is called Bor- 
deaux — and which the Gascons flatter themselves has derived its name from 
its situation on the borders of a large river, appears on the contrary to have 
it explained by the basque language in a sense not very creditable to its an- 
cient character — Burg"alaor Burdala — (Burdigalaby the Romans) is a brothel 
— the original composition of the word — is bur, a dirty place (hence burgh 
in the German — boroughs in English) and gala — which means — showy. 

Barcelona — from Barcel prison — and ona good. 

These proofs are in a variety of stones, coins, and other very curious 
monuments examined by Mr Erro towards the conclusion of his first book, 
the portion which I have not translated for the reasons mentioned in my 
preface. 



CHAPTER II. 



On the Antiqueness of the Art of Writing. 

One of the most admirable productions of the human genius 
is the art of writing ; inferior to none in utility, essential to the 
progress and perfection of all others, it forms a very powerful 
bond in the social union. It enables us to perpetuate the im- 
pression of fleeting words, to give a precise form to our most 
subtile ideas, and to transmit to posterity a lively image of our 
own times : yet the author of this important invention is un- 
known, though we have not failed to preserve and to celebrate 
the memory of those who have made discoveries of much less 
importance to society. 

The ^Egyptians, a vain people who endeavored to appropri- 
ate to themselves all discoveries in all the sciences, have at- 
tributed the glory of the one in question to their Join— the 
Phcenecians to their Jaut, and the Greeks to Cadmus according 
to some authors, and to Mercury according to others ; — finally 
some ecclesiastic authors have given this honor to Moses, who, 
as they say, transferred to alphabetical writing the hieroglyph- 
ics which were anterior to his time ; but putting aside these 
various pretensions growing out of that national partiality, which 
naturally enough, lays claim to the honor of useful inventions, 
it is proper that we should examine the matter more severely, 
and by the light of impartial reason. 

Ever since the creation of the world man has been in pos- 
session of arts and inventions essential to his well being, and 
also of such as are contributive to the charms of his social 
existence : — agriculture and architecture are of the first class ; 
music and poetry of the second. 

The first man, deprived of the favor of God, had by his sin 
opened the way to all the evils of life ; seeking a remedy for 
these according to the intelligence with which he found himself 
endowed, he began to invent arts of necessity, and then those 
of enjoyment, or mere convenience. Thus Adam and his 
sons (according to the sacred writings) were occupied with 
agriculture and the care of herds, — many years before Enos 
invented harmonic sounds with which to give utterance in 
hymns to the gratitude filling his heart, when he contemplated 
the works of the Creator ; — this art was preserved in his family 



and gradually perfected through six generations to Jubal, who 
invented the lyre and the organ. If man did not receive the 
knowledge of letters with his other endowments at the time of 
the creation, he must at a very early period have felt the want 
of, and invented them. It is in his nature to admire grand and 
marvellous events, and to record them, especially when they 
have an immediate relation to himself. The creation of the 
world, — of himself and woman ; — the immediate communica- 
tion in which he was placed with God himself; — the dominion 
which was given to him over all other creatures ; the magnificent 
views of nature just from the hands of the Creator in all the 
splendor of its divine origin ; — the paradise lost, but promised 
to be restored to his descendants ; — such an epoch of his ex- 
istence he must have desired to transmit to his posterity by a 
written record, and not to leave exposed to the chances of im- 
perfect tradition. From the sacred writings we also learn, that 
Cain the elder son of Adam was the founder of a city ; from 
that time the augmenting population spread over the face of 
the earth in families — whose common origin, arts, usages and 
regulations, rendered indispensible a communication amongst 
them by writing. In all ages the genius of man has been in- 
ventive, in that age w T hen he enjoyed a very extended exist- 
ence, and therefore was better able to bring to perfection his 
inventions, he must have found out the art of writing — amongst 
those which were most essential to the social union ;■ — again, 
the moral corruption of a nation is ordinarily the result of ex- 
cessive luxury ; — it is evident then, that the vices, which 
according to Moses, brought on mankind the judgment of the 
deluge, suppose a state of society far advanced beyond those 
simple arts which are necessary to sustain life according to the 
frugal ordinances of nature ; — thus it is to be presumed that 
commerce and agriculture, and sciences in general, had reached 
a degree of perfection at which without the art of writing they 
could not have arrived. 

But to return to the traditions of the most ancient people, 
Phoenecians and ^Egyptians, each attributing to itself the honor 
of the alphabet by their Jaaut or Jout; — may not this name 
be Jaun, Jova or Jouda — names given to the Creator in the 
primitive language. 

The traditions of nations have in them generally a founda- 
tion of truth, — though in the course of ages disfigured and 
confused in its circumstances so as to obscure its origin. Thus 
the Phoenecians descendants from Canaan grandson of Noah, 



having received the tradition that Jaun or Jova had given to 
their remote ancestor Adam, the knowledge of letters and the 
art of writing, in their ignorance of God — conceived the inven- 
tion to be human, and attributed to a mortal the supposed au- 
thor of it, the name of the deity whom they knew not. Moses 
the sacred historian, and a most learned man, relates in his 
Pentateuch the events of nearly three thousand years, with as 
much exactness and precision of details, as could have done 
any one who had been a personal witness of them ; these com- 
pose a multitude of generations and names very difficult to be 
preserved in the memory by tradition, particularly as they are 
in a strange language ; names also of cities and rivers, and an 
exact catalogue of the ages of the patriarchs and of the first 
individuals of the human race. 1 well know that our mother 
the Catholic church teaches that these holy books are from the 
inspiration and revelation of God, and so we her children be- 
lieve , — but even without this superior authority, I hold it to be 
probable, that the art of writing having been in use from the 
first ages of the creation, Moses may have found in those writ- 
ten memorials of the first people which were preserved by 
Noah, an entire history of all the most important events which 
had occurred down to his time ; events which were doubtless 
notorious to the people whom he led, and amongst whom he 
wrote, for the purpose of reminding them incessantly of the 
great benefits bestowed on them by the Creator. I am the 
more inclined to this opinion by the authority of that learned 
historian Flavins Josephus, — who though a writer much poste- 
rior, yet is considered in the republic of letters as one of the 
first authorities, as well on account of his profound erudition, 
as for the particular respect due to the notices extracted by 
him from the annals of Chaldea which he had examined with 
great attention, and which as we know contained the most 
ancient accounts of the world ; — now Josephus says in his 
work on the Jewish antiquities " Seth (son of Adam) as soon 
as he had arrived at the age of reason, gave himself up wholly 
to the exercise of virtue ; and he had children who succeeded 
him, and imitated him in this course : these lived together in 
perfect union and harmony, and without suffering any adver- 
sity ; — they were the inventors of astronomy, and knowing by 
a prediction from Adam that the earth was to be purified by 
water and fire, and fearing lest their scientific discoveries might 
thus be lost to mankind, they erected two columns, one of brick 
and one of stone, and on each of these, they wrote all the 



8 

knowledge which they had acquired, to the end that if the 
waters should destroy the column of brick, that of stone re- 
maining, mankind might be informed, by what was written on 
it, of the progress made in science." From this authority is to 
be inferred not merely that the art of writing was known in the 
lime of Seth, — but anterior to it ; — for it is not to be supposed 
that those who have so particularly displayed the merits of that 
illustrious man and his offspring, — and have acquainted us with 
their knowledge in astronomy, would have omitted to specify 
amongst their attainments this most important art of writing 
had it been one of their discoveries. It is therefore to be pre- 
sumed that the family of Seth learnt this art from Adam, as 
also the science of numbers which opened the way to their 
astronomical observations and calculations. There is a passage 
in the Grecian geographer Strabo, which appears to me is also 
to the purpose ; — extolling the civilization of the Turtitans, he 
says, " they preserved written memorials of antiquity and have 
(as is said) poems and laws in verse, six thousand years old." 
This passage of Strabo has given rise to contestations amongst 
the learned, some believing it to be an absurd and exaggerated 
boast of the Turtitans, and others defending it by means of a 
reduction of the solar years to years of three or four months 
duration ; — but both these opinions may be combated by argu- 
ments of very considerable weight ; — the first opinion is op- 
posed to what Strabo received from credible witnesses ; — to 
the traditions of that learned people ; and to the very docu- 
ments which they cited and produced ; for Strabo says ex- 
pressly, that they preserved " written memorials of antiquity :" 
the second opinion is founded on a merely arbitrary system, 
for the testimony in its favor which is attempted to be drawn 
from Xenophon in his treatise " JEquivocis temporum" where 
it is said that " the Iberians ordinarily calculate by the year of 
four months and rarely by the solar year," has against it the 
fatal presumption of being an interpolation by the famous 
Dominican, of Viterbo : — besides, Strabo was a very judicious 
man, and one of the most ingenious critics of his time ; he 
treated particularly of all that related to Spain, and it is most 
probable that he had not passed without notice this singular 
mode of computation, had it in fact existed there ; — but neither 
he, nor the Roman historians, have made the least mention of 
it, notwithstanding the frequent opportunities of doing so pre- 
sented in their annals : — nor could a man of his profound eru- 
dition be ignorant of the years of antiquity as calculated from 



the creation ; he must at least have been acquainted with the 
best accredited opinions of the learned men of his own time ; — 
therefore, in referring to the ancient Turtitanan writings, it is 
not to be supposed that he would have given his authority to 
the opinion of the learned Spaniards who had founded their 
assertion, as to the antiquity of their language, on the very 
documents notoriously in their archives, unless he had deemed 
that opinion to be highly probable. Those who treat this nar- 
ration as an absurd exaggeration of history, very well know 
that an exact rule of computation has not yet been generally 
agreed on ; — can they pretend to tell us how many years had 
passed from the creation to the time of Strabo ? This question 
has given rise to various opinions ; — amongst others of the last 
century was that of Bayle, which states, that from the creation 
to the coming of the Messiah, that is to within a few years of 
the time of Strabo, there had passed six thousand one hun- 
dred years, an hundred more than the calculation of the 
Grecian geographer ; — but even - by the computation of our own 
calendar, it is evident that the world had five thousand two 
hundred years of age in the time of Strabo; — hence as there 
is the best reason to suppose that the writings of the Turtitans 
had preserved the records of events immediately following the 
creation, the assertion of the Spaniards as to the precise period, 
cannot be considered to be much if at all exaggerated, seeing 
that to this day there are differences in opinion on the matter. 
Nevertheless I will not insist on the narration of Strabo as un- 
questionable, — it suffices for my purpose so far as to prove that 
the Turtitanan writings go back to the first ages of the world, — 
and that the origin of writing is to be sought for in that high 
antiquity; — this opinion receives still further confirmation from 
the authority of Pliny, who, speaking of the antiqueness of 
writing, says " the use of letters is from eternity." As to the 
origin of the writings of Betica, I will hereafter expose my own 
opinion and the powerful reasons by which it is supported ; and 
in the alphabet which follows will be found, I trust, not a few 
good additional reasons for concluding that the invention of let- 
ters is to be sought for very early after the creation : — This is 
certain, that the Phcenecians, Assyrians, or Cananeans (*the 
same people under different names) to whom has been attributed 

*The same people — that is to say, these different denominations of 
the same people are found in various authors, but in fact the Assyrians 
were a very different people from the Syrians and Phoenecians, at least it is 
evident that Pliny speaks of these as ot three distinct nations. 

2 



10 

the invention of letters, have an alphabet which is not their 
own, — but which they must have inherited from a people much 
more ancient than they ; — the names of their letters are not of 
Phoenecian origin, nor can the etymology or rational principle 
of them be found in the Phoenecian language ; — but it may be 
asked what nation can be more ancient than that whose origin 
may be traced up to the division of the first language of man ? 
I answer — the primitive people, — the people who possessed the 
primitive language, and who had doubtless an immemorial 
alphabet ; — the same which the Phcenecians afterwards used 
with but little alteration ; — this inference arises from the fact 
that no other than the primitive language can give a suitable 
explanation of the names and value of the letters, and this 
would not have been so had the alphabet been of Cananean in- 
vention, for then the letters would have been conformable to 
the genius of that language, — and might have been explained 
by it as they now are by the primitive idiom. 



CHAPTER III. 

On the Origin of Writing and the Antiqueness of the Celtibe- 
rian Alphabet 

The existence of the art of writing in the first ages of the 
world being allowed, — it remains for us to ascertain the char- 
acters which were then used ; — this investigation may appear 
to some persons to be unnecessary, since according to the gen- 
eral opinion of the learned it must be fruitless ; nevertheless 
proofs are not wanting which may give to this historical point 
that degree of probability which history admits as in general 
sufficient with regard to events of remote antiquity. 

Some would persuade themselves that hieroglyphics were 
the first alphabets used : — others say, that as the sciences were 
not perfect from the beginning, but were gradually perfected by 
long experience and meditation, so of writing, they suppose 
that from its origin it was not of that facility, which as now, 
enables us to commit to paper our most minute thoughts, our 
most delicate sentiments, and our most tender affections ; but 



11 

that at the beginning images and symbols supplied the purpose 
of writing ; — for example, that eternity was represented by a 
snake with his tail in his mouth, the world by a ball, the pas- 
sion of anger by a lion, a king by a sceptre, — and so on : — by 
such means, as is conjectured, men were able to explain all 
their thoughts and to preserve the records of the first ages. 
Now those who think thus, assume a general principle, and 
without allowing of any exception, build on it the whole ma- 
chinery of their system and erudition ; but a mere glance at 
the subject will satisfy us, that by such means it had been im- 
possible to preserve that minute narration of the events of the 
primitive ages which Moses makes us acquainted with ;— 
hieroglyphics could only have served to transmit in gross some 
principal occurrences ; — not to relate the conversations of God 
with Adam, — of Eve and the serpent ; — to record the names 
of the patriarchs, their ages, their opinions; — the measure and 
proportions of the ark ; and a variety of other minute circum- 
stances ; — it was by writing only that these could have been 
preserved till the time of Moses. 

It is certain that all languages, the basque only excepted, 
present innumerable difficulties in perfecting the art of writing. 
We cannot conceive how, without incessant and profound appli- 
cation throughout many ages, man was able to comprehend 
those principles which constitute the excellence of this wonder- 
ful invention, — the mechanism of its several parts, and the 
application of a determinate character to each modulation of 
the voice in pronunciation ; these certainly are labors of very 
great prolixity, and the general opinion is, that the human intel- 
lect could not have achieved them but by very slow degrees 
and after numberless experiments; — the learned will see that 
these difficulties are very much diminished when they examine 
the basque language and its admirable composition. 

Our reason as well as religion presents to us in a single indi- 
vidual the origin of our race : — this individual was created with 
all the qualities which we acknowledge to be essentially in 
man's nature ; having been created social, he was endowed 
with all the dispositions belonging to the social state ; — he had 
consequently a language, and that language must have been in- 
spired by the Author of his being ; from the sacred writings we 
learn that this first man but a few moments after he was created 
held conversation with God, — hence alone we must infer that 
the Creator had enriched his intellect with profound and exten- 
sive knowledge : we see, as stated by Moses in the book of 



12 

Genesis, that as soon as God had created the beasts and birds, 
he carried them to Adam that he might give names to them ; — 
here again is made evident the extraordinary degree of wisdom 
which God had bestowed on the first individual of the human 
race, — for the names which Adam gave importing so exactly 
the characteristic qualities by which each species was distin- 
guished—suppose in him a perfect knowledge of all nature. 
It is equally evident that Adam had as perfect knowledge of 
the language in which he spoke, since he employed its most 
nice expressions in the names which he gave to the productions 
of the creation. He knew that this language was composed of 
various members each having its representation marked by 
nature in the modulations of the voice ; he knew that these 
were in a determinate number ; the import of each ; and that 
all united and used with the discrimination and accuracy which 
the Creator had ordained, formed the true and scientific 
language of nature :— thus he knew that the modulation of the 
voice in pronouncing the i always signified penetration, — in the 
g connectedness, — in the b profundity — in the d multitude, 
and so on ; such he found to be invariably the principle of his 
language ; — and herein is the origin of the art of writing. 

The number of the modulations of the voice in pronuncia- 
tion, and the signification of each modulation, being known to 
Adam, as they must necessarily have been, since he spoke 
an original inspired language, — was alone in the world, and 
could not therefore take from any precedent those very appo- 
site names which he gave to all things, — hence it was easy 
for him to mark his ideas on the sand (which we may 
suppose to have been his first tablet) in characters which indi- 
cated the value of the modulations, and gave an idea of the 
representation belonging to them ; — the characters made equal 
in number to the modulations with which he was acquainted ; — 
for example, he knew that the modulation a denoted extension, 
and to mark this signification he invented a character, — not one 
arbitrary and insignificant, but that which presents at the first 
view of it an idea of its value, — (see the plate) — indeed nothing 
could so naturally represent extension as measure, and at a time 
when there had not been invented any means of ascertaining it 
otherwise than by steps, — the representation of these by the 
angle which the legs form in making them, gave the most exact 
idea which the mind could receive through the sight ; — he 
knew that the modulation i, always denoted penetration, and 
therefore he represented it by the form of an arrow. (See the 



13 

plate.) After the fall of man he was under the necessity of 
inventing weapons, as well for his defence as to procure sub- 
sistence ; — it may be reasonably supposed, that the arrow, one 
of the most simple, was one of the first of those weapons ; — 
and what more perfect sign could he have used to represent 
penetration, — this is precisely the signification of the i in the 
Euscaran alphabet. The modulation of the o in basque words 
signifies roundness and height, and in abstract ideas infinite ; — 
it was to represent these qualities that the first man formed the 
sign o, — in pronouncing this letter nature itself determines its 
form by closing the extremities of the mouth and elevating the 
lips so as to complete a circle ; — then as to its abstract signifi- 
cation, what can give a better idea of infinite than that which 
has neither beginning nor end : — the same reasoning applies to 
consonants as to vowels ; the modulation of the c always signi- 
fies cut in basque words, and therefore it is represented by the 
figure of a sickle, which for reaping or cutting herbs for the 
cattle, must have been one of the first invented of agricultural 
instruments, and it is thus that we find it on many of the most 
ancient basque coins. In this way, by means of the apt appli- 
cation of certain material instruments invented by man for pur- 
poses similar to those for which nature intended his modulations 
by means of the value which she gave to them in the pronun- 
ciation, did the first societies proceed in the formation of the 
primitive alphabet. 

I am well aware that this system will appear arbitrary to 
those who regard with prepossession all discoveries which lay 
without the circle of their acquirements, or are in any degree 
opposed to their principles; — but the observations of philosophy 
on the wisdom of the first operations of mankind, are in accord 
with rny opinions. It must be allowed that the inventor of 
writing had an exact knowledge of the value of the modula- 
tions of the voice ; — nature, which was his master, early taught 
him that to make his invention useful to mankind, it was neces- 
sary to render ideas transmissible "by means of signs, the repre- 
sentation of which denoting the civil utility of their archetypes, 
would lead directly to the knowledge of their signification, 
without recourse to social convention which depends on the 
capriciousness of man. The hoe, — the arrow, — the ladder, — 
the yoke, were inventions of the first society ; and even now 
we scarce look on them, but that independent of all convention, 
the ideas of labor, penetration, ascension, and subjection, are 
presented to the mind ; — for those are the instruments of these 



14 

effects : nature having indicated these ideas in the modulations 
of the voice, and instructed man in the application of them, 
could lie in carrying into practice his desire, neglect the pre- 
cepts of this all wise mistress, and omit to make use of deter- 
minate characters representing such instruments as should di- 
rect the intelligence of those amongst whom writing was to be 
a means or communication. 

These reasons are more than sufficient to persuade us that 
the inventor of writing did not make use of arbitrary charac- 
ters, — but that attending to the import of signs in relation to 
modulations, he applied to the representation of these, such 
instruments as by their use in society gave the most exact idea 
of their signification : if there are persons who are disposed to 
think otherwise, and that the first man was not acquainted with 
these simple and necessary operations of nature, I will ask 
them whether they can still deny the force of my opinion, and 
refuse the conviction of their own senses, when after an 
examination of the original characters on the monuments 
and coins of Spain, they shall see that the pickaxe, the 
hoe and the pitch fork are frequently found expressing the 
value of modulations ; will they deny that there now exists, 
as I shall make manifest, an alphabet which preserves in the 
names of its characters the signification which nature has given 
to the modulations of the voice ; and that from these figures 
applied according to the principles of the same alphabet, and 
peculiar to our primitive language, result beautiful conceptions 
in legends precisely appropriate to the purposes for which they 
were intended ? I address my reasoning to those of the learn- 
ed, who, disposed to seek truth in philosophy and history, are 
unshackled by preventional opinions which enslave the intel- 
lect ; — a close examination of the elements of the Spanish 
alphabet convinces me that it is the same as w r as used by the 
first individuals of the human race ; — for it is to be observed 
that the alphabets of all other known languages are composed 
of arbitrary characters in no wise indicating by their form the 
intention of nature as to the modulations which they repre- 
sent ; — herein is a total absence of those principles and that 
consummate wisdom which we observe that nature has manifested 
in all the first operations of mankind, — and in the mechanism 
of the.Euscaran language. 

Superadded to these reasons, — there is in confirmation of 

&***"*& m y °P unon as t0 lne ra liqji ity of the Celtiberian writing, the 

text of Strabo before referred to, proving that the Spaniards 



15 

had preserved laws and poems in verse of six thousand years 
date ;* it is to be presumed that the earliest in date of these 
writings had been brought to Spain by the first settlers of the 
country, and it is to be inferred that the characters of them 
were the most ancient in the world. That the Celtiberian 
characters were brought to Spain by the first emigrants from 
the plains of Senaar, is a fact which in fair criticism does not 
admit of a doubt ; — these characters of time immemorial, — 
are found in the Spanish inscriptions and on coins forming 
words in the basque language the most ancient in the world ; 
(as will be shown hereafter) — they are not, nor have they the 
least affinity or resemblance to the Phcenecian characters ; nor 
did the Phoenecians arrive in Spain lill 800 years after its first 
settlement : the) 7 are not Grecian, for though the alphabet of 
that language has a considerable degree of connexion with ours, 
yet we do not find in it a similar explanation of the signification 
of its characters, — but on the contrary we see that they are 
wholly arbitrary ; — besides, the Greeks date their alphabet only 
from the time of Cadmus who brought it to Greece, whereas 
the authority of Strabo above cited gives to our alphabet an 
anteriority of some centuries : — nor can it be believed by those 
w r ho are acquainted with the Greeks and their inordinate love 
of fame, that Asclepiades, who lived many years in Andalusia 
and wrote on the antiquities of that country, — that Polibius,— 
Posidonius, — Artimidorus, Eforus, with many others who wrote 
on the affairs of Spain, and even Strabo himself who had 
before him the works of all these writers,- — that all these would 
have left unnoticed a circumstance so important and so worthy 
of record, as the introduction of the Greek alphabet into the 
Peninsula, had such been the fact ; — this is the less to be 
believed, since we find these same authors in defiance of all 
probabilities to the contrary of their relations, insisting on cir- 
cumstances of infinitely less importance to the gratification of 
their national vanity, — such as the voyages of Ulysses and An- 
tenor, of the companions of Teucer and Amphilocus, and 
stories of this kind, which even had they been authentic — had 
not thrown any extraordinary lustre on Greece; — so far are our 
characters from being Punicf that they have not more relation 

*Note. Lib : 3. Hi inter Hispaniae populos sapientia putantur excelere, 
et literarum studiis utuntur, et memoranda? vetustatis volumim habent, 
poemata; leges quoque versibus conscriptas e sex annorum millibus, ut 
aiunt. 

tThe Carthagenian language was a dialect of the Phaenecian— both of 
them derived from the Hebrew. 



16 

to them than they have to the Roman ; consequently having 
existed from the most remote antiquity, and not having been 
brought to Spain by any of the foreign tribes who have settled 
in it, — the Celtiberian must be that primitive alphabet which 
was brought by the first settlers, — and we find in it undoubted 
evidence of its derivation from the Euscaran language. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Error of those who have expected to find in the Phcenecian 
and Grecian Languages and Alphabets the Origin of the 
Alphabet and Idiom of Primitive Spain. 

The very little success which has attended the labors of the 
many learned men who have attempted to explain the most 
ancient inscriptions on the coins and other monuments of the 
peninsula, — has led them into the error of concluding that the 
primitive language of Spain was but a dialect of the Grecian 
or of the Phcenecian ; or of both as some have supposed. It 
is surprising that men in other respects of profound erudition, 
should resort to conjectures of this nature, since it is evident 
that when those foreign tribes came to Spain the country had 
been peopled for many ages; and therefore to support their 
professed opinion, it were necessary for these authors to assert 
that the population was dumb till the arrival of the Phoenecians 
and Greeks ; — absurd as is such an inference, yet it necessarily 
results from a rash theory which has been adopted merely to 
cover self-love and to avoid an ingenuous confession of igno- 
rance. 

Consequent on this error was that of attempting to find the 
Spanish characters in the Grecian and Phcenecian alphabets, 
and in those languages the interpretation of the ancient inscrip- 
tions ; thus altogether losing the way which leads to the in- 
vestigation of the truth ; — and this false conceit has not even 
yet been wholly dissipated by the disappointment of those who 
adopted it ; — the passage of Strabo is cited, where speaking of 
the Turtitans — he says that not only they, " but all the Spaniards 
knew the use of letters, though not in the same form — nor in 



17 

the same language''''— -and from this it is pretended to infer that 
there never existed in Spain a peculiar and general language. 
Now I will concede for a moment in favor of this opinion 
the utmost that it can pretend to, — namely, that Strabo meant 
in this passage to speak of various and distinct languages in 
Spain, and not of the several dialects belonging to our native 
language ; — even in this supposition, it cannot be denied that 
Strabo wrote in the commencement of the reign of Tiberius, 
and that his observation refers to that epoch ; now who in cor- 
rect logic can infer that because in the time of Strabo there 
existed many languages in Spain, — there might not have been, 
as there was in fact, a general language previous to the arrival 
of strangers. It is allowed that in his time there were many 
languages in Spain, Phcenecian, Grecian, Punic, and Roman, 
which last as he says was the prevailing one in Betica ; — but 
this fact does not in any wise exclude the other — namely, the 
existence of a primitive language general throughout the king- 
dom ; — the less, since it is evident as 1 think, that in the pas- 
sage referred to, Strabo did in fact intend to speak of the 
various dialects of the primitive language, that which the 
basques now use, and not of the foreign languages with which 
he was well acquainted, but was aware that it was not neces- 
sary for him to refer to on that occasion : — and in fact the 
basque language is spoken in an extraordinary variety of beau- 
tiful dialects, amongst which are the Laburtanian, — the Gui- 
puscoan, and the Biscayan ; — there are ten or twelve others, 
now confined to small districts, but which were spread over 
large tracts of country when the Euscaran was the general 
language of Spain ; they differed as well in the accentuation, 
as by a variety of inflexions; — hence it were not surprising if 
even these same dialects had appeared to a stranger, as was 
Strabo, to be distinct languages, — especially if his opinion had 
been the result of a comparison between the three principal 
dialects, which so much vary from each other as to present 
some difficulty to a mutual understanding amongst the several 
basque provinces who use them : — I for example am from 
Andoain in Guipuzcoa, one of the districts in which the lan- 
guage is spoken in its greatest purity, — yet I confess that it is 
not without great difficulty that I can hold a conversation with a 
Laburtanian, or with an inhabitant of the Pyrennean Navarre. 
It being then indisputable that Spain was peopled before the 
arrival of the Phcenecians, and that its inhabitants had a lan- 
guage peculiar to themselves, to suppose this primitive language 
3 



18 

to be derived from the Phcenecian and Greek, is an unpardon- 
ble anachronism in any man having pretensions to literature ; 
consequently it is ahsurd to look into those languages for the 
interpretation of our inscriptions and medals. 

The same diversity noticed by the Greeks in the languages, 
they observed also in the alphabets of the Peninsula ; — of these 
there were -several in the time of Strabo ; — those used by the 
Carthagenians, the Phoenecians, and the Romans, as well as 
that of the Spaniards ; but this fact proves not anything 
against the single primitive alphabet which was the Celtiberian ; 
— all the others had been subsequently introduced, — this was 
primitive and peculiar to the country ; and though some varieties 
may be observed in it, these are in the merely accidental lorm 
of the characters resulting from the tastes or fashions of dif- 
ferent epochs : thus our common letters now in use, are sub- 
stantially the same as they were two centuries ago, — yet in 
many of our documents we find them so varied in their form 
as to appear quite different. The English, French, and Span- 
ish., all use the same characters, yet several of these have great 
varieties in form, produced by the tastes of these different peo- 
ple ; so it has been with the Euscaran letters — and this I doubt 
not is the variety of which Strabo speaks. 

Nevertheless it is necessary to mark well the distinction 
between the Spanish alphabet and those of the strangers, so as 
not to confound the characters of the one with the others. In 
the Peninsula are frequently found coins of all descriptions, — 
some Phcenecian, some Grecian, many Roman, and as 
many of those called Celtiberian, which are primitive Spanish. 
Now I do not undertake tiny explanation of these foreign coins, 
that labor does not enter into my plan ; I leave it to those of the 
learned who have a special knowledge of the alphabets and 
languages in question ; — I shall treat only of Spanish inscrip- 
tions, and the language and characters which form them ; I 
will expose a clear and literal explanation of these, and it will 
be seen that this discovery, so much desired, has not hitherto 
been made, owing to the prejudice as regards the basque lan- 
guage with which the investigations have been attempted ; — it 
lias been supposed that nothing interesting to literature could be 
found amongst the rustic inhabitants of northern Spain, amongst 
tlrose whom Strabo and Mariana, and others who are neither 
Strabos nor Marianas, call barbarous ; herein is the foundation 
of ignorance, and the argument of unjust prepossession. But 
nature produces its most perfect works in all places; the 



19 



whole earth is, and always has been the object of the Creator's 
bounty. Let then this remote corner of Spain now afford to 
literature a discovery hitherto considered by the learned to be 
impossible. 



CHAPTER V. 



The Greek Alphabet is not of Phoznecian but of Spanish 

Origin. 



•e 



Don Pablo Pedro de Astorloa published last year (1 802) 
his apology of the basque language, a work highly esteemed 
by the learned : — amongst much interesting matter which it 
contains, is the evidence that each of the letters of that lan- 
guage has a particular signification and representation conform- 
able to the dictate of nature ; — hence results one of the most 
solid perfections of the Euscaran. The attentive consideration 
which I had given to this same matter left me without the least 
doubt of the same truth. I do not know but that my first im- 
pression was somewhat of regret, that another person had pre- 
ceded me in the discovery, but at the same time I was rejoiced 
to find my opinion confirmed and supported by that of a 
learned basque, to whose zeal and well directed erudition the 
country was so highly indebted : — it is true that we had acquired 
the knowledge of this peculiarity in our language by differ- 
ent means, and in so far our discoveries were distinct; — 
Astorloa had mounted to the first source, he had consulted 
nature, inferring from the articulations, and the modulations of 
the voice, the representation which she had appropriated to 
each letter ; — whereas I began my investigations much lower, 
and found the signification of the letters in other speculations: 
a series of reflections on various etymologies in which I observ- 
ed that the letters each exercised a special function, led me to 
an examination of the ancient alphabets with a view to discover 
some traces of the truth which 1 was in search of. Convinced 
by repeated proofs not only of the extension of the Euscaran 
in many parts of the world, but of the derivation from it of 
various languages, it appeared to me very possible to make 



20 

this quite evident, and after many efforts I found in the Hebrew 
and Greek alphabets the value and representation of the basque 
signs, thus at the same time ascertaining the origin of those 
alphabets, and settling an important point of history.* 

The wisdom which the Euscaldunes manifested in this por- 
tion of literature, appears to have been almost beyond the pow- 
er of human faculty ; — it was after the most profound con- 
sideration of nature, — and having found in the modulations of 
the voice the value and office of the smallest members of this 
philosophical language, that they determined on their alphabet, 
and thus perpetuated through successive generations that solid 
instruction which led to a perfect understanding of the idiom 
by means of a special denomination for each sign designating 
its true value, and in a form which (lest pronunciation in the 
course of time might destroy that value) should convey a sensi- 
ble idea of the same signification ; — this is the alphabet called 
Celtiberian or ancient Spanish, and borrowed from us by the 
Greeks.f 

I already see that this proposition will startle many a puny 
literary genius ; — I hear these exclaim, " is it possible to tole- 
rate such absurdity ; were there ever before such wild preten- 
sions in the face of the most respectable authorities, and the 
uniform testimony of ancient history :" — such clamors cannot 
diminish the force of those arguments by which I have the 
satisfaction to say that I shall make palpable, and completely 
demonstrate the truth. The proper mode of defeating my 
purpose, were to confute my arguments by solid reasoning ; — 
this, directed like my own to the discovery of truth, and being 
free from personalities, I should listen to with pleasure. I seek 
truth through the obscurity of remote ages with the sole object 
of establishing it, and thus restoring to my native language its 
rights which have been usurped ; — amongst them is the alpha- 

*Eusebius in his " Evangelical Preparation," speaking of the Hebrew 
letters, observes, that they are the only letters which have significant names, 
and hence he infers that they are the most ancient ; — it is this same character 
in the basque, from which the Hebrew were derived, that leads Mr Erro to 
a similar conclusion. 

fPossibly there may appear to he some little obscurity in this passage ; 
if so, it will be best elucidated by an example. The modulation of the voice 
in pronouncing the 9th letter of the basque (which became the 10th in the 
Greek) alphabet, determined the value to be given to that letter ; that is to 
say, a certain modulation carried the sense of privation ; kapa then became 
the name of the letter to express its value, and in such a form, that is K, 
(or a yoke) as should convey a sensible idea of that value, according to the 
author's explanation, (at the letter k.) 



21 

bet, which the Greeks have appropriated to themselves, giving 
the honor of its first invention to the Phoenecians. 

I well know that all the ancient authors are of opinion that 
the Greeks took their alphabet from the Phoenecians, and I 
know that this is amongst the literati an established historical 
fact, of which no one can doubt without incurring the censure 
of temerity ; — yet I must say in deference to truth, that though 
there are but few points in history so generally sanctioned as 
fact, there are few which are so false ; — leaving this assertion 
to be established hereafter, we will in the mean time lay down 
five propositions. 

1st. The Greek alphabet had originally but sixteen letters, 
the Phoenecian twenty- two.* 

2d. The Grecian letters have not the least resemblance in 
their form to the Phoenecian. It is attempted to combat this 
serious difficulty by supposing that the difference in the form of 
the letters, was owing to the practice which the Greeks adopted 
of writing from the left towards the right hand, though origin- 
ally they had written from the right towards the left ; but this 
argument is of no weight, for allowing that change from the 
original practice, (which practice however was not without ex- 
ceptions) the letters in that case were changed in their posi- 
tions, — their angles turned towards the right hand instead of to 
the left as before, but they were not otherwise changed in their 
form. 

3d. The ancient Grecian letters called Cadmean, are the 
very identical Celtiberian letters. 

4th. The original number of the Greek letters is the same as 
the Celtiberian, and the names of them pure basque. 

5th. The Phoenecians wrote from the right hand towards the 
left, the Greeks from the left to the right, as did the Celtiberi- 
ans ; — the argument that they formerly wrote in the other 
direction is of no force, for that practice was not general, — and 
if some monuments be found in which that method is noticed, 
so also in the basque writings the same variation is to be seen, — 
but of this I shall treat more fully hereafter. The very an- 
cient Delphic inscription mentioned by Plinyf and in primitive 
Grecian characters as he says, still further supports my opinion. 

These are occular truths, and therefore incontrovertible ; and 
they present on the first view vehement suspicion as to the 

*Plin: lib : 8. cap ; — 56. Utique in Greciam intulisse c Phoenice cadmum 
sedecim rmmero. 
fPlin. Lib. 8. cap. 58. 



22 

origin of the Greek alphabet. The sole foundation of the 
opinions of Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny and others in 
favor of the Phoenecian origin, is that Cadmus, who lived in the 
fifteenth century, (before Christ) introduced an alphabet into 
Greece from Phoenecia, presuming that as he brought it from 
thence its characters must needs have belonged to the alphabet 
of that country. Cadmus was the son of Agenor king of the 
Phcenecians by Telephassa his wife ; — the Grecian historians 
tell us that Europa, the sister of Cadmus, having absented her- 
self from the palace of Agenor under very suspicious circum- 
stances, the anxiety produced by her departure resulted in the 
determination of the family that Cadmus should go in search of 
her through all the countries where she might probably have 
taken refuge ; that in this pursuit having traversed various 
territories without success, — fatigued by his labors, and having 
lost the greater part of his attendants, he feared to return to 
the presence of his father, and consulted the oracle of Delphos 
as to the course which he should pursue ; — he was answered 
that he should give up all thoughts of his country, — go to 
Bceotia in Greece, and build a city for himself and companions 
on the spot where he should find an ox. This story describes 
as a traveller a young prince, who under the necessity of seek- 
ing his sister, undertakes all the perils of navigation ; the ad- 
vantages of a good education which he derived from his rank 
enables him to profit by his travels ; as it is evident that he did 
by his introducing an alphabet into Greece. At that period 
the voyage to Spain was continually made by the Phcene- 
cians; — the interesting accounts which the travellers gave of the 
manners and customs of the inhabitants of Betica, — of the 
beauty of the country, of its mines of gold and silver, and 
of other surprising particularities, must naturally have induced 
Cadmus to take that way, especially as he might reasonably 
suspect that his sister had fled thither, seeing that the constant 
commercial communication between the two countries afforded 
the readiest means of escape : — thus it is highly probable that 
Cadmus came to Spain, and that his cultivated mind profited of 
the opportunity to acquire information in whatever of import- 
ance was peculiar to that country ; an alphabet wholly new to 
him, and much more conformable to the system of nature than 
was his own, could not fail to excite his attention, and to engage 
him in an examination of its construction, and the signification 
of its characters. Having subsequently passed over to Greece 
in obedience to the order of the oracle, and founded the city 



of Thebes in Boeotia, he there introduced the Spanish alphabet, 
which gradually spread and became general throughout Greece. 

But supposing the account of these voyages of Cadmus and 
of his visit to Spain to bequestiorsable, — yet it cannot be denied 
but that the Phoenicians mada frequent voyages thither.; on this 
point all histories are in accord : — a sagacious people so wholly 
addicted to commerce as were the Phcenecians, soon perceived 
the great advantages to be derived from an intercourse with 
Spain ; — they went in families and formed factories, so that in a 
few years there was established an intimate and constant com- 
munication between the two nations ; the gold of Spain excited 
the avarice of the Phcenecians, and a taste for the manufactures 
of the Phcenecians produced a corresponding commercial spirit 
in the Spaniards. The Phcenecians must necessarily have made 
themselves acquainted with the Spanish writings, for though they 
had not been led to this acquirement by their decided taste for 
the sciences, it became indispensable to their commercial pur- 
suits ; — many Spaniards also passed over into Phcenecia : thus 
in this double intercourse the Spanish alphabet and language 
must have become known in that country. Is it to be supposed 
that a prince of a nation which valued itself on its superior civil- 
ization, should be ignorant in what related to the customs and 
the knowledge of a people with whom his own were in such 
constant and friendly communication, an intercourse to which 
Phcenecia was principally indebted for its wealth and power? 
I have always believed that he was not only well instructed on 
all these matters before he quitted Phcenecia, but that the rape 
of his sister was but a pretext for his voyage to Spain, and 
that having enriched himself there, he feared to return home, 
but, the more securely to enjoy what he had gained, passed over 
to Greece and founded his city, pretending an order of the 
oracle, at once to justify his absence from home, and to confirm 
his authority in his new colony. 

To convince us that the Grecian alphabet is of Phcenecian 
origin, the ancient writers should have shewn at least that its 
characters, and the names of them, were Phcenecian ; — hut this 
was too arduous a task : — unquestionably when one nation adopts 
the invention of another it commonly adopts at the same time the 
appellations belonging to that invention, and these undergo no 
other change than what results from the inflections of the voice 
peculiar to the nation so adopting. This general mode of re- 
ceiving the names of adopted inventions, is that also which ac- 
cording to the general opinion prevailed in the origin of the 



24 

Greek alphabet ; — let us see then how it applies in the present 
argument, and examine without preoccupation the relation 
which the Phoenecian and Grecian alphabetic denominations 
may have to each other. If we observe a certain degree of 
conformity, yet we shall find sucJi marked distinctions between 
them, as to convince us that the conformity is only in that 
degree which necessarily belongs to words having a common 
origin, as in fact these two alphabets have in the primitive lan- 
guage. Certain it is that the names of the signs of the two 
alphabets differ, though there is some analogy in the sound of 
them, and that the variation of the Greek from the Phoenecian 
names renders the Greek names purely basque, and exact defi- 
nitions of the value which nature gave to the modulations which 
those signs represent ; — a very essential circumstance, and an 
extraordinary provision, which leaves not any room to suppose 
that the difference between the Phoenecian and Greek alphabet 
has resulted from accident as some persons have asserted. 
Those who would attribute the very marked difference which 
exists between the Grecian and Phoenecian signs to the peculiar 
genius of either language, must know that in tin's difference is 
not to be observed any dependence on the inflections proper to 
the Greek language ; the names of its letters have nothing an 
them of a Grecian character, — nothing of the genius of that 
idiom ; on the contrary, the strange names and inflections of the 
alphabet lead us to seek an explanation of the difference in 
question in some other principle, and not in the inflection of the 
Greek language ; will perchance this difference be accounted 
for by the alteration which all idioms undergo in the course 
of ages; — but what reply can be made to the arguments in 
favor of a language now presented to the learned world as 
primitive, and laying claim to this very alphabet. It may 
be allowed that by extraordinary casualty a word here and 
there may be carried with some alteration from one language 
into another, but this is not applicable to the present case ; 
here we have sixteen signs of the primitive writing in which we 
observe that the Grecian deviation from the denominations of the 
Phoenecian letters, make pure basque. It is impossible to attribute 
to mere casualty a concurrence of multiplied and studied com- 
binations ; — nor can we make dependent on a single circum- 
stance this fact, — sixteen being the foreign and primitive letters 
of the Greeks, precisely the same number, sixteen of the twenty- 
four which now compose their alphabet, are basque; — and 
though we should admit, (no trifling admission) that it was by 



25 

mere chance that the Greeks gave to those letters most appropri- 
ate names taken from the basque language, of which they were 
wholly ignorant, yet we cannot go so lar as to allow a possibility 
that it was also by mere chance that they chose for the names of 
their letters precise definitions of the value which nature gave to 
them. And apart from all these incongruities, is there anyone 
who can believe that the Greeks, finding the want of an alphabet, 
took the letters of it from the Phoenecians, and the names of those 
letters from the basques ? Now it is a fact that the characters which 
the most eminent paleographists present to us as Cadmean and 
primitive Grecian, are identically the same as the basque lan- 
guage recognizes in inscriptions on coins and stones of the first 
ages after the peopling of Spain ; those signs are in no wise Phoe- 
necian, nor have they ever belonged to any language other 
than the basque, for in that language only can be found their 
representative character, and the determinate value of their 
modulations; for the same reason it is certain that they were 
not borrowed by the Euscaldunes from any other people. 

Against all these facts and arguments how is it possible yet to 
seek in the Phoenecian for the origin of the Greek alphabet, — 
on no better ground than some analogy in the sound, or the 
authority of a Grecian writer in an epoch many ages posterior 
to that origin ; — authority is the last argument of philosophy in 
matters of opinion, especially where, as in the present case, the 
channel through which it is transmitted is of a questionable 
character. 

An adversary of Bernardo de Montfaucon in a pamphlet en- 
titled " Priscis Grcecorum et Latinorum literis," felt the force 
of these arguments.; his observations and researches proved to 
him that the Greek alphabet had no relation to the Phoenecian 
language ; but like one who satisfies himself without solid foun- 
dations, and on incomplete examination, he attributes to Cadmus 
the invention of the Zeta, Theta, and Xi, asserting that their 
forms and appellations denote their Phoenician origin ; and as to 
sixteen primitive letters he decides that they are Pelasgian : if 
this author had rested satisfied with proving that these were not 
Phoenecian, his opinions would have had more value ; — but the 
attempt to make the three letters above mentioned Phoenecian, 
whereas the two first of them have most apt significations in the 
Euscaran,— -and then asserting that the Greek alphabet is Pe- 
lasgian," without telling us what is this Pelasgian language, and 

* Pelasgian— AH the ancient tribes of Greece were known by the name 
of Pelasgi as long as they were migrant or vagabond — or lltxaLpyoi — storks, 
4 



2G 

what signification the Grecian characters have in that language ; 
this as it appears to me proceeds from the desire of obtaining 
reputation at the risk of treating on a matter which he does not 
understand. 

But to return to my purpose, I say not only that the Grecian 
and basque letters are the same, but that the signification of 
them is to be found in the basque language only, and that they 
have no further relation or resemblance to those of the Phcenecian 
or Hebrew alphabet, than what arises from their common origin 
in the Euscaran. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Demonstration that the Greek Alphabet is derived from 
the Basque. 

Some persons have considered, and still consider as paradox- 
ical, the assertion that each letter in the basque language has its 
special signification and representation ; according to this theory, 
say they, all languages may be explained in basque ; but this 
mode of talking is deficient in philosophy. It is true that the 
words of all languages are composed of small members or letters, 
but it is not equally so, (even though these members may have 
each its special signification furnished by nature,) that in the 
formation of those languages, the rule thus afforded has been 
adopted and observed with that scrupulous nicety which distin- 
guished the basque; hence it is that in other languages the 
signification of the members of a word conjunctively rarely cor- 
respond to the sense in which the word is used, or is an exact 
definition of the thing represented by it : I say rarely for it is 
certain that amongst the languages of the confusion*, all of 
which were derived immediately from the Euscaran, are to be 
found some words having that property, and these have been 
taken from our language. 

a species of bird that often changes its residence — so that the author 
here combated by Mr Erro merely hazards the assertion, that civilized 
Greece had the alphabet of their barbarous ancestors. 
* "Confusion" of languages, refers to the story of the tower of Babel- 



21 

The very decisive examples from our alphabet which I shall 
now expose, will not only satisfy and silence foiever all doubts, 
but establish the fact hitherto unknown, that the Greek alphabet 
is basque — or primitive Spanish. 

A 
The first letter in the Greek alphabet is the a, which they 
call alpha, this being its name in the language from which it 
was taken ; — amongst the Greeks this word alpha has no sort 
of signification, it says nothing ; but amongst the Euscarans it is 
an exact definition of its value, and is what nature intended it 
to represent : it may have two significations according to two 
distinct etymologies, but both quite appropriate to its repre- 
sentation : — the first signification is a letter powerful, robust, 
strong, from ala, power, — and fa or ba (which are the same as 
we soon shall see) meaning profound extension; these dictions 
united, say literally of power the profound extension, or which 
is the same, very powerful, and in truth the A is the most pow- 
erful of all the modulations, that by which a man gives most 
force to his voice. The second signification is a letter which 
denotes extension, dilatation, from ar, ara, any thing plain, 
or extended, and the termination ba : the Euscaran language 
makes frequent use of the letter in this last sense ; the substitu- 
tion of the r soft, for Z is very common in our language, as for 
example in the words Alaba for Araba, Galpe for Garpe, Gala- 
tia for Garatia; and on the contrary of the soft r for / — thus 
we say indifferently ulia or uria, ilia or iria, to signify a people 
or country. 

B. 

The second letter in the Greek alphabet is B, — which they 
call beta ; the etymology of this word is so apt, and so com- 
mon its representation, that there is not a basque who does not 
on the slightest consideration claim it as his own ; it is composed 
of be — bea — something profound, low, — and of the local ter- 
mination eta ; thus this letter in the Euscaran always denotes 
profundity. Our ancestors to represent this modulation and 
give an idea of its value, have left to us a sign, which has 
been subsequently used reversed ; (see the plate,) — it repre- 
sents a weight suspended to a cord, and what figure could be 
invented to give us an idea of profundity more proper than that 
of the instrument by which it is measured ; is it possible that 
any one who sees this should assert that the Greek beta is not 
basque ? The ancient basques represented by the same sign 



28 

the modulations b, f, p, and this is the reason why the signifi- 
cation of a basque word transferred into a foreign alphabet, is 
the same whichever of these letters it may be written with, for 
they have the same representation ; and though the Euscaran 
oral language makes some distinction between them, yet our 
ancestors to avoid confusion, established the rule of writing them 
by the same sign, seeing that the value of them was nearly 
equal, and consequently the use of them nearly indifferent ; 
thus we say indiscriminately, the native of JVabara f of JYapara, 
or of JVafara. 

G. 
The third letter is the G, which the Greeks call gamma, and 
this is also the third sign of the primitive alphabet; the name is 
pure basque, and is composed of gam, gama, which signifies 
that which is above, high, as in the words, gam-bara, gamba- 
ta, and of mi, mia, narrow ; thus the sign g in the basque al- 
ways signifies height and narrowness. The inventor of the 
art of writing appropriated to represent this sign the very apt 
figure of a small ladder, (see the plate.) Nothing could 
give a better idea of the modulation than that instrument by 
which we ascend. The Euscarans yet preserve in their oral 
alphabet the letter q, as in the words mesquiriz, amezquita, he. 
but to represent this sound in writing, they use the letters gam- 
ma and kapa ; it is therefore that I mention the q in this place, 
it was a sign unknown to the ancient basques, but introduced 
by the Romans in later ages, and without the least necessity. 

D. 

The fourth letter of the Greek is also the fourth sign of the 
primitive alphabet, and called delta or deleta ; the modulation 
d, in the syllabical composition of Euscaran words, denotes 
multitude. The word is composed of de, de-a, or dia, which 
signifies multitude, of le, lea, maker, causer, or former; and of 
the local* termination eta, which together make of multitude the 

* Local termination. It is very common in the basque language to termi- 
nate words referring to place with eta ; — it may be well here to explain other 
similar expressions used by the author \ — augmentative letter, means that the 
letter ?n, added to a word, always expresses augmentation in the basque — in 
the same way abundaniial letter means that u is the sign of abundance ; 
characteristic of appellative means that a is an article appellative ; — a and ac 
are very common terminations of nouns in the basque language, it is there- 
lore that so many places in the French Pyrennes, and what is called the de- 
partment of the Oironde (capital of which is Bordeaux) 'nave names ending 
with ac, — these terminations arc but the postposition of the appellative 
article ; for example, guizonis man, and guieona, the man. 



29 

former ; that is to say, the letter which has the power and repre- 
sentation of multitude. This is the definition and value of the 
modulation, and herein we see the reason why the territory 
laying between the mouths of the Nile has been called the 
Delta from the first ages of the world ; it has not been so called 
as has hitherto been generally supposed, on account of its form, 
similar to the delta in the Greek, alphabet, but on account of 
its very extraordinary fertility and the abundance of its pro- 
ducts, as though we should say, country maker of multitudes 
and abundance. 

There is such a close affinity between this modulation, and 
that of the t, that in the common use of the basque language, we 
frequently take one for the other ; so our ancestors used proba- 
bly a common figure to represent them, for after much inves- 
tigation I have not been able to discover amongst any of the 
monuments which I have examined, any special sign for the d. 

E. 

The fifth letter of the Greek alphabet is also the fifth sign 
of the basque ; as the Greeks never had in their language the 
pronunciation tsi, they never could receive the name etsila, 
by which the Basques called the e. The word etsila means 
that the vowel e denotes debility, extenuation, &tc. It is com- 
posed of etsi, to consent — and ila, a thing dead ; that is, it is a 
sign which represents the modulation almost dead of the 
vowel e. 

It denotes weakness, both in a moral and physical sense ; 
when used in the sense of debility, the Basques represented 
it by an angle of unequal sides with its point on the ground, 
(see the plate,) manifesting in the weight of its long sides and 
the smallness of its base, the danger of its losing its equilibri- 
um and falling. The Greeks substituted the psi, for the tsi, 
and so made of the basque etsila, epsila, or epsilon, by means 
of the Greek termination on.* 

CorZ. 
The sixth letter of the Grecian is also the sixth of the prim- 
itive alphabet, our modern c, which they czWzeta. This basque 

* The author here observes in a note, that the name of this letter, more 
changed than any other in the alphabet by the Greek inflexion, may also 
have been derived from the primitive Aitz-ila, which the Greeks read FAz- 
ila, and which signifies letter quite dead — that is, very weak letter. Be this 
as it msy, the signification is the same, and explains that which nature gave 
to its modulation in the composition of the language. 



30 

word signifies a cutting letter, and is composed of ce, tea, cut 
— and the local termination eta ; this is the signification which 
nature gave to the modulation which this letter represents, and 
is that which the basque language adopted in the composition 
of its words. Our ancestors gave the most lively representa- 
tion of its value by two signs, [see the plate.] The first 
figure is that of a pruning knife, the second represents the se- 
micircle which the teeth form, and with which in pronouncing 
the c, we seem as though we should cut the tongue. 

This modulation has also a representation in a double letter, 
and then it signifies abundance ; our ancestors when they em- 
ployed it in this sense, doubled the sign and formed of it sev- 
eral others, as [see the plate.] The letter has two pronun- 
ciations, one like the cha, in Spanish, and one like the soft cha, 
in the French language; though they were both expressed in 
writing by the same sign, they were differently pronounced by 
the reader, as in Zacurra, a great dog, which name though al- 
ways written with a Z, yet when applied to a small dog, was 
read and pronounced chacurra. In some other words these 
pronunciations were indifferently at the choice of the reader, 
as in Zingara or chingara, a spark — Zimisia or cfiimista, the 
lightning , this same variation in the pronunciation is still in use. 

T. 

The eighth letter of the Grecian, is the seventh sign of the 
basque alphabet, called tita, (theta.) This name indicates the 
value which nature affixed to the modulation t; the word tita 
is pure basque, and signifies a thing very abundant at times, 
but not continually so ; it is composed of the termination ti, tia, 
which signifies abundance limited to certain times, as in sagas- 
tia, the orchard, where every year, though not throughout the 
whole year, there is abundance of apples ; and in arritia, a 
space of land, not a quarry, but on which here and there is a 
great abundance of stones ; for the same reason this termina- 
tion ti-ta or ti-tia is the name given to the breast of a woman 
when nursing, ; in truth it were impossible to present a more 
perfect idea of the value of the modulation t, than by this 
name ; there is nothing which can better represent this occasion- 
al abundance, than the breast of a woman provided with nourish- 
ment by nature herself, during the period of her nursing. The 
inventor of the art of writing was not less judicious in the choice 
of the sign which represents this letter, than in the name given to 
it, — the figure is that of a woman's breast. [See plate] 



31 



The Greeks gave to the ninth letter of their alphabet the same 
name as our ancestors gave to the eighth sign of theirs, that is 
iota. This sign had originally two significations, and still pre- 
serves in the basque two different pronunciations ; one as i, and 
the other as j. The Greeks, who never comprehended the 
true nature of this difference, took the sign in only one accepta- 
tion, and it is therefore that their alphabet is without the i pro- 
per ; for as to their upsilon, it is and always has been an u ; if 
it has been taken for our i this is not because the primitive 
Spaniards did not make a distinction between the two signs, but 
because in a great number of our w r ords they are used indis- 
criminately, which led to the belief that the Spaniards had no 
special sign for the third vowel, and that the sign of the u was 
employed sometimes as one representation and sometimes for 
the other : what may also very much have contributed to this 
error, was the carelessness of our writers, who forgetful of the 
wise principles which governed the composition of the alphabet, 
gave into a loose practice of using indiscriminately the i and 
the u, between which in .the origin there was a well marked 
distinction ; this abusive custom transferred to Greece with our 
alphabet, hence arose the difficulty of ascertaining the true value 
of their upsilon, whether it was that of i or u. 

To the letter i under the modulations, Ya, Ye, la, Io, our 
ancestors gave the name of iota to designate the signification 
affixed to them by nature ; it denotes the functions of the j to 
be the expression of a shock, stroke, power, superiority, and 
other synonimes of these, — it being composed of the verb io to 
strike, attack, rise, elevate, and of the local termination eta. 

When this letter had the modulation of a vowel, the basques 
called it i or ia, to express its functions in the composition of 
language ; it denotes whatever is sharp, pointed, subtile, fine, 
and is called i — that is a rush — which plant thin and pointed 
represents the value of this vowel. (See the plate.) 

K. 

The tenth letter of the Grecian alphabet is the ninth of the 
basque, it is the Castillian k, called in Greek kapa ; as the Eu- 
scaransdid not use for the representation of the B, P, F, more 
than the single sign of B, it is therefore that amongst the na- 
tions which have taken from them the names of the letters of 
the alphabet, some have called this letter kaf or kafa as the 
Jews, others kapa as the Greeks, and the Euscarans called it 
kaba. -This variety does not affect its signification ; it always 



32 

denotes privation, great want, defect, contempt; laba is soften- 
ed into gaba, so we call the night because it deprives us of light 
and of the sight of objects ; gaba is a contraction of galea a 
negative expression equivalent to " without," as doucgabea, 
without goodness, that is bad. 

The inventor of the art of writing to represent this letter, gave 
us the figure of a yoke or collar in two different positions, (see 
the plate,) and could any thing be imagined better suited to 
convey the idea of a great want or privation than that of the 
instrument invented by man to deprive of his liberty and reduce 
to servitude an animal made free by nature. Very shortly after 
the creation of man it became necessary for him to resort to the 
assistance of the brute animals for the cultivation of the earth, 
but to this end it was necessary to reduce to obedience animals 
whose strongest instinct was perfect independence. It is to be 
presumed that his first experiments were made on single animals, 
whether the horse, or horned animal, and it was not till after he 
had succeeded with one, that he thought of yoking pairs ; thus 
we see that the yoke here represented is for a single neck ; the 
invention of writing then was anterior to the' use of the double 
yoke ; hence another argument in favor of the very high anti- 
quity of this art. 

* L. 

The eleventh letter of the Grecian is the tenth sign of the 
primitive alphabet, called Lambda or Lameda, corresponding to 
the Castillian L; this is a basque word denoting precisely the 
value which nature gave to the modulation /, and that which it 
has in the Euscaran language ; it is composed of la, a thing 
benumbed, adherent ; of the augmentative letter m, and of 
eda, a thing extended ; thus this letter denotes torpor, fatigue, 
immobility; our ancestors to represent this modulation gave to 
it the very appropriate sign of a hoe, (see the plate,) for there 
is not any thing which fatigues a man more than labor, and in 
the first ages of the world when the alphabet was invented, 
there was no other labor than agriculture ; hence this sign was 
the most appropriate, and is another proof of the very high an- 
tiquity of the basque writing. The double L, (11) which is 
very common in the oral alphabet of the basque language, has 
not any special sign to represent it, for it is a modulation so little 
necessary that it is wholly warning in several dialects, as in those 
of Laburtania and the Pyrenean Navarre ; the i before or alter 
the I gives to us precisely the value of the // — thus in one dialect 



S3 

tlletza, abundance of wool, is ilietza in another; oilua, a hen, 
in one dialect, is ollua in the other. 

M. 

The twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet and the eleventh of 
the basque, is called mi, equivalent to our m : mi or mia signi- 
fies tender, flexible, delicate, and by metaphor the tongue ; as 
it is by the tongue that we give utterance and extension to our 
ideas, hence the modulation m, is called tongue, according to 
the signification which nature gave to it in our idiom, — that is 
the augmenting property. Our ancestors gave to this modulation 
for a sign, the form of the lips when the mouth is suddenly 
closed, that being the natural position of them when this letter 
is pronounced. (See the plate.) 

N. 

The thirteenth letter of the Greek, which is the twelfth of the 
primitive alphabet, corresponds to our common n ; ni m the 
basque signifies ascent rising in a point, as is seen in the words 
muniain, ernio, ernani, &c. ; it also denotes suavity, softness, and 
therefore when we caress infants we say ninia, ninichua, and we 
even make a distinction with this letter in our manner of address- 
ing men and women, thus we say toma with a harsh t, to the man, 
and to the woman noma with the soft n. The sign originally 
appropriated to this modulation was a crook, which was after- 
wards changed by making its bends angular — but both signs are 
found indiscriminately employed in the basque language. (See 
the plate.) 

Shortly after the creation of man he found himself obliged to 
seek subsistence for himself and companion ; this necessity, and 
the desire of seeing and examining closely the distant objects 
of his attention and admiration, induced him to make long and 
wearisome and frequent excursions from his habitation ; it was 
in climbing the mountains that he could best observe all the 
beauties of nature spread before him, he must have soon found 
the assistance which he might derive from a staff; the first form of 
this may have been simple, but he must have quickly perceived 
the advantages of a crook, as well to assist him in his ascent, as to 
draw within the reach of his hands the branches of trees produ- 
cing fruits for his nourishment : the consonant N being in- 
tended by nature to represent an ascent, or gentle mounting of 
a hill, as is observed in the composition of the basque idiom, 
hence the inventor of writing very properly applied as the best 
sign of its value a crook, which had its origin from the fatigue 
5 



34 

which man experienced principally in ascending mountains. 
To this sign also belongs the n (n liquid) which is very com- 
mon in the oral alphabet of our language ; our ancestors did not 
employ any special sign to represent this modulation, nor was 
it necessary to do so.; like the double /, there are several of our 
dialects in which it is scarcely used ; the vowel i either prece- 
ding or following n, makes the exact effect of n (n liquid) in the 
dialects wherein it is used — thus oina for ona, gania or gaina 
for gana. These observations on the double I and liquid n, and 
the oriental character which prevails in the dialects of Laburta- 
nia, and the Pyrenean Navarre, by its many aspirations, lead 
me to believe that dialect to have been the oldest in our lan- 
guage, or at least that which was most generally used in the 
primitive world when the alphabet was formed. 

R. 

The Greeks call the seventeenth letter of their alphabet Ro, 
and this is the thirteenth sign in the primitive, corresponding to 
our Castillian r, (rough.) Though the basque write Ro, they 
pronounce it with the antiposition of the soft e, for the purpose 
of rendering the r less harsh at the commencement of a word 5 
so they pronounce erro the root (foot) of a mountain, distin- 
guished from sustraria which signifies any vegetable root what- 
ever ; as the foot of a mountain is generally rough or uneven 
ground, it is therefore that the Euscarans gave to the modula- 
tion r which is naturally so harsh in the pronunciation, the name 
of ro or erro, to denote whatever was rough, harsh and painful; 
and in this sense it is employed in the Euscaran. This etymolo- 
gy does not admit of a doubt ; it is evident in the rugged situation 
oMhe ancient palace of Cabo de Armeria de Erro, the seat of 
my family, and in the valley of Erro, formed by the steep, craggy 
sides of the Pyrennes. The sign which represents this modu- 
lation is a knife or dagger, — the use of this instrument to sepa- 
rate any thing into pieces or to transfix, indicates the roughness 
of this letter; amongst other signs this letter has also that of an 
axe, which from the roughness of its stroke is quite significative. 
The Euscarans had a particular sign to represent the double r, 
which is no other than two of the single ?*'s joined back to back, 
the middle line being in common; sometimes also it is formed 
in the same way, but the single line left out. (See the plate.) 

S. 
The eighteenth letter of the Grecian is the fourteenth sign of 
the Euscaran alphabet, called sugma, and corresponds to our 



35 

Castillian s; this basque name is composed of the basque word 
suga, a snake, and me, men, flexible, fine, subtile ; that is to 
say, the modulation s received from nature for the composition 
of the idiom the representation of the properties of this reptile, 
and it therefore denotes, pressing, rubbing, dragging, and any 
thing flexible, subtile ; the inventor of writing therefore gave us 
to represent this consonant the figure of a snake, (see the plate,) 
and thus we find it employed in our basque inscriptions, and 
amongst the signs of the original Greek alphabet. 

U. 

The twentieth letter of the Greek alphabet is the fifteenth 
sign of the basque, corresponding to our Castillian u. I have 
already observed that the Greeks had not our pronunciation ts, 
and therefore not being able to pronounce this sign as the 
basque utsilun, they substituted their pronunciation ps as most 
nearly approaching it, and called the letter vpsilon ; since the 
Greeks had not the pronunciation ts, nor had the basques the 
pronunciation ps, this variation, though slight, was indispensa- 
ble in adopting a name so expressive of the value of its sign. 

Utsilun, signifies that the vowel u denotes void, obscure hol- 
lowness ; that is, profound hollowness, for the depth of cavities 
renders them obscure : the word is composed of uts — utsa, 
void or cavit}', and ilun — iluna, obscure : as the Euscarans 
frequently substituted the u for the i, (and this practice is still 
continued) as in ulcea, a nail, for ilcea, uria, the people, for 
iria, and on the contrary the i for the u, as in Jaincoa for 
Jaungoicoa, he, thence, as before observed, the Greeks sup- 
pose that this sign utsilun, represented both the u and the t. 

The inventor ot the alphabet left us two signs to represent 
the value of the modulation u, both admirably adapted to it; — 
the first, that of a pitch fork of three prongs, an instrument of 
agriculture used to make hollows* in the cocks of hay ; the 
second, is that of another species of fork, two pronged, used 
in a similar way for corn in stacks, or in the barn. (See the 
plate.) Thus is made evident, by the form of the last sign, the 
error which has hitherto prevailed, that the y was invented by 
the Greeks ; it is undoubtedly the u Spanish, or more properly 
speaking, oriental, brought to Spain and taken from thence by 
the Greeks. Even though this fact were not established as it 

* " To make hollows," that is, so as not to leave it in compact masses ; but 
admitting the air to circulate, and thus preventing the hay from rotting by 
moisture. 



36 

is, by the peculiar adaptation of the sign to its purpose, a con- 
clusive argument in its favor exists in a sepulchral stone at 
Iglesuela in Arragon, the legend on which is in the basque 
language and characters ; and there the y is employed even in 
the value of i. 

O. 

The twenty fourth, and last letter of the Greek alphabet, 
called omega, is the sixteenth sign of the Euscaran, and cor- 
responds to the Castillian o. Omega is a basque word, signi- 
fying a rough though round height, and is composed of o, oa, 
high, round ; of me, mea, any thing soft or delicate, and of the 
negative ga — (corresponding to our ivithout) — these, taken to- 
gether, signify that the letter o denotes any thing high, round 
and rough, or little smooth ; the sign which represents this letter 
under those qualities, is one the angles of which represent the 
roughness of the modulation, as the smoothness and regularity 
of this other sign, o, conveys the idea of a smooth elevation. 
[See the plate.] 



CHAPTER VII. 

Application of the Preceding Observations. 

These are the sixteen letters of the original Greek alphabet, 
taken from the sixteen signs of the Euscaran ; carried to 
Greece, and forgotten in Spain, they have remained for ages 
unknown to their legitimate proprietors. This is the wisely 
constructed alphabet of our ancestors, that composition of 
extraordinary genius, transferring to the names of the signs, the 
observations made on the value which nature gave to the modu- 
lations of the voice. Let this demonstration be well examined 
by the learned, and Jet them then pronounce whether it be 
possible still to maintain the historical dogma as an infallible 
truth, that the Greek alphabet is of Phoenecian origin. 

This discovery throws light on languages in genera], to what 
perfection may not several of them be brought, if in the forma- 
tion of their words, the same rule of nature be observed as the 



37 

inventors of the art of writing have applied to the smallest 
members of words in the signs of our alphabet ? 

The discordance which is to be observed in historical narra- 
tives as to the Greek alphabet is of itself a sufficient evi- 
dence, that the writers of that nation deserve but little confi- 
dence in what they say as to the number of the letters which 
have been added to that alphabet, and as to the authors of the 
invention. 

Nor is it surprising that a nation ignorant as to the origin of 
its alphabet, should also be ignorant as to which were the prim- 
itive letters of it, and which those which were subsequently 
added ; particularly if the additions were made, as it is probable 
that they were, soon after the original alphabet was carried to 
Greece. Relative to the first additions made, authors are 
totally at variance, some attributing them to Palamedes and 
some to Epicarmus. The Greeks, always seeking to assume 
as their own^the honor belonging to other nations, did not fail 
to appropriate to themselves some part at least, of the credit of 
this invention, and as they could not deny the foreign origin of 
their primitive letters, they desired at least to claim the merit of 
the additions ; but being wholly ignorant of the idiom to which 
the names of their letters belonged, without a knowledge of 
which an accurate distinction between the original and added 
letters was impossible, they fell into confusion — mistaking some- 
times the primitive for the added, and at others the added for 
the primitive. Thus Aristotle enumerating the sixteen primi- 
tive letters, places amongst them pi, tau and fi, which are in 
fact added letters, and have not any relation to the primitive 
alphabet, which has no special signs to represent them, they 
being included in the signs beta and tita. Amongst the four 
letters of the first addition made by Palamedes or Epicarmus, 
is placed the tita, and in the second addition, attributed to 
Simonides, the zeta and omega ; but 1 have made it perfectly 
evident that these signs are of the basque alphabet, of course 
they are not of the added letters, and much less of Grecian in- 
vention 5 for as the primitive alphabet was much anterior to Pala- 
medes, Epicarmus and Simonides, and as the names of these 
signs are basque, and exact definitions of the value of the 
modulations which they represent, those names cannot have 
been given by the Greeks, who were always ignorant of the 
basque idiom ; besides, had the invention of the signs been 
theirs, they had probably given to them Grecian and not for- 
eign appellations. 



38 

The original letters'then of the Greek alphabet, represented 
by sixteen signs of the Euscaran, were these — A, B, G, D, 
E, Z, T, J, K, L, M, N, R, S, U, O— comprehending the 
value of the twenty eight letters of the basque oral alphabet;* 
that is of twenty four common letters, and the n (liquid), 11 
(double 1,) tza, and tsa. The letters added to the Greek al- 
phabet were eight, viz : oci, little o, (omicron) pi, tau, Ji, chi, 
psi, and h (eta) — though these may be called unions rather 
than additions, since they are but signs comprehending each 
the pronunciation of two or more of the original letters. But 
putting aside the discussion as to the epoch when these addi- 
tions were made, a point of no great importance, it is to be 
observed that the signs which represent these additions are 
wholly Euscaran ; the % (xi) corresponds to one of the signs 
of our Z, composed as a double letter of two c's — the omi- 
cron is the basque o in one of its significations — the pi corres- 
ponds to one of the signs of the gamma, the tau to one of those 
which represent the iita, xheji to one of the signs which repre- 
sent the beta — the chi is but the sound of the kapa in this sign 
X, which is one of those representing the Z, and the psi is one 
of the signs of the utsilun and of the iota.f 

These observations may serve to undeceive those who have 
been disposed to receive historical dogmas from Grecian 
writers, and to submit to such frail authority the operations of 
reason and the instruction of their own intellects. 

* Twenty four common letters of the basque oral alphabet. This requires 
explanation ; it means that the sixteen written letters as now used in con- 
versation, are made to comprehend the expression of the twenty four Cas- 
tillian — called " common letters." 

fThe author has omitted the H, (eta) which is evidently one of the signs 
of the basque Etsila. ' 



The primitive alp ha tut <£- the correspondence l?e* 
tween the basque signs as they are fonncLon the 


mcst an cient m o/tunients of Spain dc the eemmen letters. 


i \ nurum 
Letters. 


3 lames 

of the 
Greek 
Letters 


Ounces 
er'tke 
primitive 

"basque, 'u/ru,- 


Signs 

at 'the 
t J rim- 

itive 


Variations of the 
signs subsequently 

introduced. 


A 


Alfa. 


Alfa. 


A. 


Hi.ax./ 


KEP. 


J&i'ta 


J*)eta 


11 


?.6>.&.^^&,4$>.£4.(l) 


G. 


Gamma 


Gamma 


B. 


r.p.j.A. 


D 


Delta 


Xettaoaeirta 






E 


'Epsilon 


Etsila 


v/l. 


HMfMS. 


Co.Z 


Zdta 


Zeta 


S\C. 


<.^.X.X.<<Ai><LX. 


T 


Jlta 


Ma 


Q. 


O.O.T.O. 


J I 


Iota 


I.Iota 


r.t. 


f.rY.-H.r.r.yx. 


X 


Kapa 


Kapa 


K. 


R 


X 


Lamda 


Lameda 


r. 


<<X.A. 


JVI 


Mi 


Mi 


, — 


M. 


1ST 


JK 


JYi 


ft 


rA'.A.A. 


31 


Jio 


Jlo 


M?R 


P. KM)., ft.*. 


S 


Siyma 


ditama 


I 


*.S. 


TJ 


Upjifan 


TStsilun, 


f . Y. 


'H.l f.4. 


O 


Omega 


Omeaa 


O.O. 





Ten file Cutis ZitHt 



PART II. 



CHAPTER I. 

On the Attempts of some Learned Men to discover the Primitive 
Language ; and on the singular Character and Perfection 
of that Language. 

I undertake a work, the argument of which traversing the 
obscurity of ages wholly unknown to history, establishes the 
origin of the religion, language, and scientific opinions of men 
in the first periods of the creation. The comparative recent 
date of all records, the fables of all nations, and the darkness 
which envelopes the formation of societies after the dispersion, 
would appear to be insuperable obstacles to my success. The 
works of Zoroaster, Berosus, Enos, Sanconiaton, and others, 
cited as the most ancient, have against their claim to authen- 
ticity strong presumptions rendering them inadmissible as au- 
thorities. The relations of the sacred historian Moses, limited 
to the principal purpose of his mission, leave great voids for 
research, and do not afford to my investigation those aids which 
might, otherwise be derived from the faith to which such a 
highly gifted writer is entitled.* 

*As the author everywhere speaks of Moses in terms of orthodox respect, 
he is entitled in this place to notice the insufficiency or incompleteness of his 
historical relation, a reserve which cannot be censured even by Jews. 
Some christian philosophers considering that Moses was the leader of an 
ignorant and credulous people, have not hesitated to view him rather as a 
wise politician than an inspired legislator and historian ; one of these, treat- 
ing of the hebdominal feasts of the Jews which he shows to have been regu- 
lated by an ancient apocalyptical system, charges Moses with having studiously 
concealed the origin of them : " Le Sabat-etoit selon les apparences ante- 
rieur a ce legislateur" — he adds, in conclusion, " Le bible ne suffit point 
pour connoitie les juifs leur Jablts prouvent leur antiquite — autaut que leur 
histoiie. 



40 

Nevertheless these apparently insurmountable difficulties are 
to be overcome by a judicious and philosophical criticism; nor 
is there probably an argument better supported by undeniable 
documents, than this which many of the learned have qualified 
as untenable : some of them however, have in defiance of all 
discouragement, endeavored to discover events previous to the 
epochs of history, and to examine the origin of societies and 
languages in the first ages of the world : convinced that no 
light could be derived from the histories of even the most 
ancient people on account of the monstrous fables with which 
they are disfigured, and the propensity to the marvellous which 
characterized the ^Egyptians as well as the Greeks, they have 
resorted to the examination of idioms, which are living archives, 
carrying in the very construction of their words, important 
information as to the state of intellectual cultivation in those 
times which are beyond the reach of examination by any other 
means. The theories which have been formed in pursuit of 
this object have been various; some have supposed that the 
primitive language was an element in the constitution of man, 
belonging necessarily to the faculty of speech by which he is 
distinguished ; so far this was philosophic ; but not so the 
method taken by Psameticus king of -Egypt (according to 
Herodotus) to discover this primitive language in two children 
brought up in a forest and kept from all human intercourse. 
The common pretension of finding the man of nature in a sav- 
age state, is founded upon very erroneous ideas of nature ;* 
it is like looking for the perfection of fruit on the trees of the 
forest, to conclude that savages the furthest removed from civ- 
ilization, living in disorder, and without any control of their 
passions, are most approximate to the system of nature. 
Though it is quite evident that man cannot live alone, that 

*A philosophical view of the Deluge adds force to this opinion of Mr 
Erro. It maybe reasonably presumed, I think, that the " savage slate''' did 
not exist before, but was the natural result of that great calamity. It is 
probable that the destruction produced by that commotion of nature was more 
complete in some places than in others, and the effects of it therefore as well 
on the social character of the inhabitants of the earth as on the earth itself, 
has been more or less durable in the same degree, and hence, that the savage 
state which we are pleased to call a " state of nature," still exists in many 
parts of the world. Or though it is certain that the whole earth has been 
deluged, it is possible that ihere has never been one universal deluge ; but 
that portions only of the earth have been inundated, at different epochs : or 
finally this still existing " savage state" may be attributed to the dispersion, 
by those who believe in the story of Babel ; and to this hypothesis, the 
reasoning of the author (in the 3d chapter) to show how the precepts of 
the primitive idiom were lost is in part applicable. 



41 

there is a chain of necessities belonging to his very constitution 
which teach him that he was created for society ; yet there are 
some persons who would persuade us that the more he advances 
in this natural order, the further he advances towards a state of 
imperfection and degradation ! 

Man is intended by nature to be a social animal, he is 
endowed with all the faculties necessary to the perfection of this 
plan ; those faculties had not been given to him had the Creator 
intended him for the savage state: the more then the cultivation 
of his intellect and the civilization of his habits, the more is he 
the man of nature. The language w 7 hich two children aban- 
doned in a forest would form, would not be the idiom of nature, 
it would scarcely be a rational language, it would be an idiom 
of interjections, to express the animal wants. Quintilian re- 
lating a similar experiment of children left in a desert, tells us 
that though they could articulate some words they were without 
the faculty of speech.* 

Other philosophers, on the supposition that the primitive lan- 
guage may yet be a living language, have directed their inqui- 
ries to certain existing idioms with the hope of discovering innate 
proofs of their originalness ; and though some of these learned 
men have obstinately persisted in endeavors to support their 
systems by violating all laws of etymology, others more reason- 
able, having brought down their discoveries to certain epochs 
where all further light has been wanting, have prudently aban- 
doned the object. Others again, and at their head the great 
Plato, have assumed as the basis of their speculations princi- 
ples more general and philosophic. ; observing that the con- 
struction of language is not a work of caprice, but that it is the 
result of a certain disposition of the organs of speech, and of 
the mechanism of the voice applied by the imperious power of 
nature to the representation of the qualities of objects, they 
sought in all languages for some common and general element- 
ary characters, and then by tracing the derivations of one from 
the other, they expected to find the primitive language by the 
modulations of the voice in what they have conceived to be ru- 
diments. These philosophers approached the true method, and 
if they had confined themselves to the examination of nature in 
fixing the exact value belonging to each modulation of the voice, 
they had doubtless arrived at some satisfactory results. This 

*Quint: Lib. x, ch. 1. Infantes a mutuis nutricibus jussu regum in soli- 
tudine educati, etiam si verba quoedam emisisse traduntur tamen loquendi 
facilitate caruerunt, (that is to say, of expressing thoughts.) 

6 



42 

great advance towards the discovery of the primitive language, 
afforded hopes of final success, hut philosophy has not made any 
progress in perfectionating and consolidating the important though 
imperfect notions announced hy Plato ; neither Publius Nigi- 
diusand the ancient grammarians, nor our modern philosophers, 
have done more than adopt and generalize his principles, so 
that it may be safely asserted that during.these past ages, scarce- 
ly any progress has been made in this branch of science. Plato, 
though a philosopher, was a Greek, and has left us in this, as 
well as in some other of his writings, proofs of his insincerity ; 
he was convinced of the truth which he announced, that 
the modulations of the voice had special significations, repre- 
senting signs which united the idiom with nature ; but this dis- 
covery which he claimed, was not his own ; he became ac- 
quainted with it during his travels, or adopted it from those who 
brought it from the East, where such a tradition as to the pri- 
mitive language had been preserved, as well as the principles 
of the numeral philosophy, of which Pythagoras claimed the 
invention, in the same way also concealing their true origin. 
If a philosophical examination had led Plato to the discovery 
of the plan which he published, and to be convinced, as he 
says, that amongst the modulations of the human voice, the r 
enters into words as a note of movement ; that the i denotes 
something subtile and penetrating; the I stupor, and that the d 
and t signify detention and restraint, all indubitable truths; he 
had then also observed by the same rule, the signification of 
all the other modulations ; he had reasoned differently, and the 
arguments of his Cratilus had been less metaphysical and more 
persuasive : he had then corrected his Greek alphabet, reduc- 
ing it to sixteen elements, and would have presented in the sy- 
nopsis of its significations a small group of signs, but sufficient 
in their combinations to represent all the objects of nature char- 
acterized by their several attributes. His Cratilus shows that 
his philosophy had done much in support of the plan which he 
announced, hut it also affords demonstration that this plan was 
not the production of his own genius. The remains of the sch 
entific opinions of the primitive world captivated his great 
mind ; he saw their connexion wrh nature, but not having re- 
ceived them in all the purity and perfection of their origin, his 
Cratilus has in it the same confusion of ideas as are to be found 
in his Tirneus. 

Every system which is not supported and confirmed by some 
truths falls by reason of its novelty. The elements of speech 



43 

are really in nature, therein they have their signification ; and 
though it is not denied that a powerful and perspicacious intel- 
lect may discover those elements, an attempt to do so will 
be always considered as a mere chimera when it meets with 
insuperable obstacles in its outset, as happened to Plato's ex- 
periment on the Greek language. Thus, though the system of 
Plato is now produced as evidence in what I believe to have 
been the primitive language, it was for many ages held to be a 
theory more brilliant than solid. 

Certainly, had Plato, or any of the philosophers who after 
him have undertaken to examine this question, met with the 
only idiom the elements of which have been dictated by nature, 
they had been able to develope the system in a satisfactory 
method ; it has been the want of that guide that has bewildered 
them, so as to leave us more struck with the beauty than with 
the practicability of their plan. 

The primitive idiom can be no other than that which has its 
origin in nature ; the faculty of speech must have its elements, 
as all things have their principles ; these are not mere acci- 
dents in the general order of the universe, nor were the modu- 
lations of the voice arbitrary in language, till man began to disa- 
vow and to commit violence on the laws of nature. 

The primitive idiom infused by the Creator must have been 
equal in perfection to all his other works, and have been inter- 
woven with all the harmonies of nature. Whoever examines 
with attention the admirable construction of the organs of speech, 
and observes their mechanical action in the various and nicely 
expressive modulations of the voice, so precisely calculated 
for the most distinct representation of all ideas to be conveyed 
by speech, will acknowledge that this wonderful organization 
cannot be the result of accident, but that it must belong to the 
all-wise dispositions of the Supreme Power in the creation of 
man ; and it is also presumable that the infused idiom was not 
limited to the expression of the principal wants of man in a 
rude state, but that it embraced all the knowledge which was 
necessary to establish his supremacy over all other created 
beings :* though this last supposition be not admissible, yet 
it will be allowed that the observations which the first man must 

* Though the author in this place allows that his hypothesis may not be 
admitted even as a probability, yet it certainly cannot be disputed by those 
who believe that God brought all the animals before Adam that he might Dame 
them ; and this immediately after the creation, long before Adam could have 
studied the philosophy of his language ; this argument is fully developed in 
the next chapter. 



44 

have made on the idiom with which he was gifted, must have 
led him to a comprehension of its elements, so as to enable 
him to adapt to all things names corresponding to those ele- 
ments ; he must have observed for example in pronouncing the 
r, a violent vibration of the tongue and a roughness of sound, 
from whence he must have concluded that this modulation was 
intended to express in the composition of words, harshness and 
movement, and so on as regards the other modulations. Man 
thus instructed by his observation (if his knowledge was not in- 
fused as is most probable)in the signification of the various 
modulations, took of them those which were necessary to ex- 
press each object which he desired to represent ; thus for ex- 
ample, when he gave a name to a stone, seeing that its qualities 
were strength and roughness, he took the modulation a to re- 
present the first quality, and rr to represent the second, and 
called it, a-rr ; to express altitude simply, he took the o ; if 
pointed, he added the i; and if the height thus described was 
remarkable for its extraordinary mass, then to distinguish it 
from those which were near to it, he added another 0, and 
called it o-ri-o.* In this manner the first man must have pro- 
ceeded in giving to things names suitable to their exterior qual- 
ities or constitutive properties. Plato says that he who first 
gave names to things must have been more than human, for 
seeing that the true essence of the name is to represent the 
qualities of the thing to which it is applied, he who so applied it 
must necessarily have known all the qualities of things ; he 
said also, that the names of things existed in nature. Publius 
Nigidius expresses in substance the same opinion. f This truth 
which can only be proved by the primitive idiom, with which 
these philosophers were not acquainted, they must have re- 
ceived by tradition, and must have adopted from the strong im- 
pression which it made on their minds. 

Many of the learned have supposed that the primitive lan- 
guage of the human race must have been rude and imperfect, 
since in the beginning but a few words were necessary to ex- 
press the then limited wants of man. This is a gross unphilo- 
sophical error ; the greater or lesser number of man's necessi- 
ties could not have had any degree of influence on the 
formation of his idiom; a language may be as perfect as I 

* This is the name of a mountain in the Pyrennes, having precisely the 
characteristics here specified ; it is called the " Pico de orio." 

\ As cited by Aulus Gillius. " Nomina verbaque non posita fortuito sed 
(madam vi et ratione naturae." 



45 

suppose the first to have been, without being rich ; perfection 
results from the syntax and mechanism of a language, and its 
riches is in the abundance of its words ; these are formed in 
proportion as the intellectual acquirements of man are extend- 
ed. Perfect languages are but rare, copious languages are 
many ; the riches of the first kind are permanent, those of the 
latter are transient; for the words of the first being definitions 
of the constitutive properties of the signs which they represent, 
become an indelible record for ages, even though the idiom to 
which they belong be lost ; whereas the words of the second 
being merely conventional, are forgotten with the objects or the 
science to which they refer, even though the idiom to which 
they belong may yet remain in use. Had those who have sup- 
posed the primitive language to have been imperfect, meditated 
with philosophical attention on the first epochs of the creation, 
they would have seen, that though those necessities of man 
which belong to the mere conservation of his existence may 
have been but few, those of his will must have been very 
numerous : — the magnificent spectacle of all nature laid open to 
his observation, must have furnished him with an infinity of 
ideas and comparisons which in conversation with his partner 
must have developed the resources of his language ; and even 
on the supposition that this language was not infused by the 
Creator, the mere fact that man was created adult, and conse- 
quently in possession of all his rational faculties, and thus capa- 
ble of comparing and discussing, suffices to prove the absurdity 
of the opinion referred to. Man came perfect from the hands 
of his Creator ; his mind altogether free from those inexact 
ideas and absurd pre-occupations which we derive from our 
education, and which embarrass our intellectual progress, he 
was able to profit fully by the instructions of the nature with 
which he was surrounded ; at that period there had not inter- 
posed between nature and man that dense cloud of prejudice 
which his perversity has produced, and which now scarcely 
permits him to discern the most obvious and simple truths, in 
the confusion produced by his chemical instruments, his physi- 
cal machines, his mathematical calculations, and his systems 
full of abstractions and contradictions. Nature, always rich, 
but in her operations simple, offered to the first man more 
copious and useful truths, than now after so many ages, are 
obtainable by the presumption of our pompous doctors most 
commonly leading their disciples through empty theories into 
the mazes of error. 



4G 

I do not, however, pretend to say that if man had been 
obliged to form his own language he would have made it as 
perfect as is the primitive language ; but certainly he would not 
have formed one of rough, gross interjections, and destitute of 
syntax as has been supposed ; to whatever object he gave a 
name, this had its qualities, as handsome or otherwise, great or 
small, soft or hard, hence the adjective ; for this object he must 
have conceived some action, hence the verb ; this action must 
have had relation to the past, the present or the future, hence 
the tense. His conceptions must also have arisen in the proper 
order of nature, thus the substantive must have preceded the 
adjective, because the quality cannot exist without the subject ; 
matter preceded form, for form cannot exist without matter, and 
so as to the other parts of speech ; guided then by these just 
rules of nature, man cannot but have used a rational language 
infinitely more perfect than that which some philosophers have 
attributed to him. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Primitive Language was inspired by the Creator and not 
formed by Man. 

The Gentile writers who have desired to say something about 
the creation of man, have attributed to mere chance that won- 
derful work ; they have said that our race originated in a sudden 
production of a multitude of individuals at the same moment, 
and in all parts of the earth, by a " certain modification" which 
it received of a " certain unknown influence." It is evident 
that if such a mode of reasoning be admitted for the explana- 
tion of phenomena, there is not an absurdity which may not be 
made an established doctrine, or a difficulty which does not 
admit of an easy solution. It must be considered then as a 
mere delirium of the imagination, which obscures the reason, 
and which can only be assimilated to the extravagant concep- 
tions of the poet who attributes the peopling of the earth to 
the stones of Deucalion.* For a time, however, this prepos- 

* Virgil 1. Georg. Quo tempore primum 

Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in orbem 
Unde homines nati, durum genus. 



47 

terous doctrine had its followers, and these maintained that the 
race of man so generated, was without the faculty of speech, 
but that compelled by necessity, he afterwards found means of 
giving utterance to a certain number of sounds expressive of 
his wants ; Diodorus, Cicero, and Horace, amongst others 
seem to have countenanced this«opinion, carried away doubtless 
by the torrent of general opinion ; or influenced by that of some 
philosophers who preceded them, more especially by the wri- 
tings of Lucretius.* 

But we must reject all such unphilosophical theories as being 
opposed to the plan of nature, — we must consider man to have 
been created adult, and endowed with all the qualities necessary 
for the purposes for which he was created. This view of his 
origin is not only conformable to scripture, but it is the only 
one which can be admitted in sound reasoning. The works of 
the creation were all made perfect, each in its kind, it is not to 
be supposed that man was an exception ; to say that he was a 
savage, destitute of rationality, is not only to degrade the most 
noble of the works of God, but to question the wisdom of the 
Creator. The extension of our intellectual power, the delicacy 
of our sensation, the sublimity of our imagination, the perspica- 
city of all our faculties, indicate that there is a state of perfec- 
tion natural to man as well as to every other portion of the 
creation, and it is not to be imagined that God made the prin- 
ciple and origin of this species incomplete, withholding from it 
those perfections with which he so abundantly endowed all the 
others. 

Presuming then that man was created with the full possess- 
ion and exercise of all his faculties, it is to be considered whether 
amongst his endowments was a language completely formed, 
or whether he formed it himself by means of the faculty which 
he found to be in the harmonious mechanism of the organs of 
his speech, and under the direction of nature giving a special 
signification to each sound of the voice : those who adopt the 
second opinion, contend that as all the physical faculties of man 
are complete, that he sees, hears, and moves, by the effect of 
his mere will, — so in the same way the oral mechanism being 
made to give utterance to sounds, there was not any necessity 
for an infused idiom to enable him to express his wants ; the 
aptitude of his organs required only the exercise of his will to 
produce the full exercise of their functions. 

• Ac varios linguae sonitus natura subegit 
Miltere, et utilitas expresit nomioa rerum. — (Lib. 5.) 



48 

These observations are entitled to much respect, for it cannot 
be denied that man has in the organs of speech the means of 
producing a perfect language ; nor can it be denied that nature 
which displays in all her works an admirable order and harmony, 
has produced such an intimate relation between the sentiments 
of the mind and the modulations of the voice, as to direct man 
with unerring propriety in the choice of the modulation for the 
expression of the sentiment. Notwithstanding these truths, there 
are others which defeat the conclusion attempted to be deduced 
from them, and which determine the judgment in favor of. the 
opinion that language was infused. 

Firstly, it is to be remarked that there undoubtedly exists in 
man's nature two distinct idioms, — one animal, and the other 
rational. If the language of which we treat was that which 
depends on mere animal impulse under the excitement of the 
passions, — as laughing or crying are produced by pleasure or 
pain, there would be no room for argument; for we observe 
this animal idiom to be uniform throughout the human race in 
all parts of the earth, and hence it is evident that the reasoning 
faculty has no agency in the formation of it ; these are functions 
which nature has reserved to herself, and she does not leave to 
man the power of violating those laws, and that uniform order, 
by which she indicates in his gestures and his interjections the 
passions which agitate his soul ; — this is instinct ; such also is 
the language of brutes — certainly not infused ; the bull roars, 
the horse neighs, and the dog barks, by means of the me- 
chanical disposition of the organs intended to give utterance to 
the various modifications of their feelings or wants. The ra- 
tional idiom is the product of the understanding, and peculiar 
to the race of man ; it is composed of articulated words; the 
animal idiom which he possesses in common with the brutes, is 
instinctive, and composed of interjections ; the first depending 
on the caprice of man, has as many forms as there are nations; 
the last made immutable by the imperative power of nature, is 
uniform and universal in each race of the animal creation. 

Brute animals are deprived by nature of the power of extend- 
ing or improving any of their faculties, their idiom is therefore 
unchangeable; thus the individual though separated when quite 
young from all communication with his kind, yet uses the same 
tones to express his wants or feelings as belong to all others of 
his species. 

But in the examination of the rational idiom, the first char- 
acteristic which it presents to us is the absolute liberty with 



49 

which it may be varied : thus there now exists a multitude of 
distinct languages formed by the caprice of man, and varying 
in a greater or lesser degree from the rules of nature. In the 
first individual of the human race this liberty was tempered in 
some measure by the exemption of his mind from all preoccu- 
pations ; but this very fact affords an argument against the 
supposition of his having formed such a perfect and rich lan- 
guage as is that which we consider to have been the primitive, 
in the short interval between the moment when he was called 
on to use it, and that of his creation. We will allow for an 
instant that the rational faculty of the first man enabled him to 
ascertain the signification of the modulations of his voice by the 
effects which they produced on himself, yet he would not there- 
fore be able to form a perfect idiom immediately : a very mature 
examination of each object must have been necessary before he 
could give to it an appropriate name ; without a very prolix 
study he could not have formed the grammar and all the me- 
chanism of his language ; abundant as were the perfect models 
offered by nature for his imitation, a very distinct comprehen- 
sion and very exact observation of her sublime principles were 
necessary before he could attempt to copy them. A language 
which even in its most minute words gives an exact idea of the 
qualities and attributes which they represent, must have required 
for its formation not only a knowledge of its radical principles, 
but a profound critical and philosophical examination of, and a 
perfect acquaintance with, all the productions of nature. 

When we consider the beautiful structure of the basque lan- 
guage in which are the most lively and correct representations 
of nature, we must allow that it was not within the faculty of 
man to copy her with so much accuracy ; we do not see in it 
any of that liberty with which man was endowed, and which 
had he used it must necessarily have led him to deviate more 
or less from her precepts. All the productions of nature are 
finished and perfect, — all proclaim their divine origin ; but con- 
tinual and uniform experience furnishes conclusive proofs that 
there is not one of the productions of man which is not marked 
by his characteristic disposition to improve the works of nature ; 
we have the most striking illustration of this disposition, in the 
multitude of languages now in use, all of them full of proofs of 
this tendency in man to separate from the rules of nature ; — 
hence is to be inferred that the primitive language would not 
have been exempted from the defects consequent on that dispo- 
sition, had it been of human origin. Apart from this considcra- 
7 



50 

tion, it has been made evident that the first man could not have 
formed this language, all perfect as it is, in the first moments of 
Ills existence, nor indeed till after years of profound observation 
and meditation ; but on examining the history of the creation we 
shall find that he had scarcely come out of the hands of the Cre- 
ator before he made use of his faculty of speech in all its exten- 
sion and perfection. The sacred historian Moses, informs us that 
man was formed on the sixth day, and the instant that he was 
animated he was occupied in listening to the precepts of his 
Creator ; immediately afterwards, and before woman was formed, 
he was employed by order of God in giving to all the animals of 
the creation names, not only distinctive, but names defining the 
principal qualities of each species; he must have possessed 
then, not only an idiom complete in all its parts — but he must 
have had also a perfect knowledge of all nature, and this must 
have been infused ; indeed the holy scripture says expressly, 
that God endowed our first parents with consummate wisdom, 
and that he manifested to them all the glory of all his works, and 
the several purposes for which they were intended.* 

The reader will adopt whichever of the two opinions in ques- 
tion may appear to him to be the most reasonable, in the 
examination of the primitive language, admiring the extent of 
intellectual power, if he supposed that language to have been 
formed by the genius of man, and the great importance of the 
various knowledge which it embraces, if he considers it the 
work of the Creator. 

* This part of the author's argument he has labored with extraordinary 
prolixity, and I have therefore abridged it as much as-vvas possible without 
absolute mutilation, because for unbelievers in the Mosaic relation it can be 
of no account, and for believers it is superfluous, since that relation offers at 
first view a syllogism which precludes all possibility of doubt ; God spoke to 
Adam as soon as he created him ; the language of God must have been perfect ; 
Adam then understood, by infusion, a perfect language. Mr. Erro had amongst 
his opponents even priests, this may have been a reason for his copiousness 
on this scriptural authority ; their cavils at least must be presumed to have 
been foreclosed by his reasoning. 



51 



CHAPTER III. 

The Confusion of Babel cannot be opposed as a Proof against 
the Existence of the Primitive Language. 

The confusion of Babel has, on the authority of ecclesiasti- 
cal writers, been urged as an argument to prove that the primi- 
tive language was lost ; to fix solidly our opinion on this point, 
let us firstly examine the authorities. Several writers have 
supposed that the Tower of Babel was built in the pride of man 
and in disobedience to the orders of God, who had pre-deter- 
mined the dispersion ; hence they consider the confusion of 
tongues to have been a punishment for the rebellion, and a 
total oblivion of the primitive language : this is the most general 
opinion amongst the expositors of holy writ, (St. Aug. de Civ. 
Dei — lib. 16, ch. 4,) but there are many others who deny that 
the building of the tower was a crime, or in disobedience to 
any order of God, — these consider it to have been intended as 
a monument to eternize the memory of this remarkable epoch 
of the dispersion already determined on, according to that 
passage in Genesis, " We will make our name famous before 
we disperse over the earth :" such is the opinion of Abulense, 
of Renald and many of the rabbins. There is still a third 
opinion that has many adherents, these contend that in the 
expressions " labii unius et sermonum eorundem" — and the rest 
of the chapter to the tenth verse, is to be understood the con- 
formity of opinions as to the construction of the tower, and in 
no wise the universality of language, nor its subsequent confu- 
sion ; Saint Gregory, who is also of this opinion, adds that the 
words of the scripture merely imply that whilst men lived in 
one society they spoke the same language, but that when they 
were divided into separate societies, each of these formed a 
separate language, to the end that the separation should be 
more complete ; and this diversity of languages he considers to 
have grown naturally out of the separation, and not to have 
been produced by a special intervention of the Supreme Power. 
This variety of opinions amongst authors of such distinguished 
erudition, shows how little foundation there is for asserting as an 
undoubted fact, that the primitive language was wholly lost in 
the confusion of Babel. It is not to be conceived that a people 



52 

could at once forget their own language, and achieve all the 
difficulties which belong to the formation of others ; this con- 
sideration has led many writers to conclude, that had it not 
been for the confusion of Babel, the formation of the many 
idioms, so various in character, as those which now exist, had 
been impossible ; certainly this is an argument of weight ; but 
nevertheless it is also certain, that distinct idioms might have 
been formed out of a common language, and it is not necessary 
therefore to suppose, that the confusion of the tower was a mirac- 
ulous mixture of idioms. From the general history of the nations 
of the dispersion, we learn of the severe hardships to which they 
were exposed throughout many generations, and for a long series 
of years; and that before they arrived at their several destina- 
tions they were in complete barbarism and ignorance ; such 
were the first settlers in Italy, in Greece, and in iEgypt, mere 
huntsmen and wanderers without fixed residences, or any regu- 
lar social union, till formed to it in one place by Saturn, in 
another by Janus, and so on by Orpheus, Osiris, and similar 
heroes — these taught them to live together under laws, and 
instructed them in agriculture and the useful arts. During their 
savage and wandering state, their idiom must have been cor- 
rupting and degrading pari passu with their civilization, and 
impoverishing till it was reduced to the mere expression of the 
necessities of a barbarous people ; such primitive words as were 
preserved, must have received a new character from inflexions, 
aspirations, and guttural sounds, so as finally to be no longer 
cognizable ; whilst other words formed in barbarism and igno- 
rance were introduced, and thus the language become disfigured 
so as not to preserve the least trace of its original structure and 
grammar. After the lapse of some ages, the intermixture of 
nations must have produced by the intermixture of their lan- 
guages, new idioms still further removed from the primitive. 
As societies have returned towards civilization, their idioms 
have been gradually improved and polished ; but what they 
have thus acquired does not belong to the perfections of the 
primitive language, the precepts of which were lost ; the nations, 
each in the degree of its civilization, have perfectionated their 
languages, and these have nothing in common but the few prin- 
ciples to which the primitive had been reduced during the 
periods of barbarism ; more or less of those principles may be 
found in all the languages which we are acquainted with, and 
we may infer that those languages which preserve the fewest of 



53 

them, belong to nations which have had the least of civilization 
in the barbarous epochs referred to. 

It was in this progress of human affairs that all existing lan- 
guages have been formed, and that the primitive has been 
forgotten ; yet not wholly extinguished, for it is not to be sup- 
posed that all the nations of the dispersion have passed through 
precisely the same eras of barbarism in the same degree ;* 
some of them whether because more numerous, or better 
ordered in their migrations, or more careful in preserving the 
legislation, police, and manners of their ancestors, may not have 
degenerated as much as others; these must have preserved 
more of their original language, as of their civilization. 

But though we should allow that the confusion of Babel was 
a punishment inflicted for the pride of man, and had instantly 
produced an absolute extinction of the primitive language 
amongst the people of Senaar, which is all the concession which 
can be asked, it does not follow that such extinction was uni- 
versal; those who partook of the crime suffered the punishment ; 
but it is certain that Noah and his family, and a great portion 
of the population of Armenia, did not participate in the project 
which brought down the divine judgment, consequently there 
can be no reason to suppose that they suffered by it. 

Grotius, and the authorf of the treatise " On the Mechanism 
of Language" think that the primitive language still subsists 
scattered and mixed up with others : Theodorotus, George 
Amira, and the Maronites of Lebanon, maintain that it is the 
Syriac ; Bochart, Calmet, and several other writers assert that 
it is the Hebrew: this variety of opinions adds force to the 
reasons already exposed, for concluding that the confusion of 
Babel, in whatever point of view considered, did not operate 
the extinction of the primitive idiom. 

* Mr Erro analyses the denominations of various places in different parts 
of the earth, and he asserts that the principal provinces, mountains and rivers 
in America have names perfectly descriptive of their localities according to 
the system of primitive geography; and hence infers that the language was 
carried to that region in very considerable purity, and as may be presumed 
also with a proportionable degree of the civilization and of the arts of the 
primitive societies, an opinion which is very much countenanced by the 
existence of those great works in roads, mines, &c. in Mexico, which so 
excited the astonishment of the Spaniards on their first arrival in that country. 
Does not this his opinion, receive still further support from the late researches 
of our learned philologists into the Indian idioms of this portion of the Amer- 
ican continent? 

t President de Brosses, (it is supposed.) 



54 



CHAPTER IV. 



Solution of some Objections to the foregoing Opinion. 

In opposition to the foregoing reasoning, some objections 
may be urged which it may be proper to reply to before we 
proceed in our argument. The principal of these is, that we 
cannot seek for an explanation of events previous to the deluge, 
in one language only, because according to the best opinions, 
the earth having been as fully peopled at that epoch as at 
present, it is to be presumed that the separation of nations at 
great distances, their various climates, civil and religious insti- 
tutions and customs, must have formed as great a variety of 
languages as now exist. 

This difficulty is easily solved when we consider the mode in 
which the earth was peopled. Had it been peopled as it was 
after the deluge, when the families separated by order of Noah 
at distances which cut off all communication between them, 
lost during their migrations all their previous knowledge, then 
indeed we may suppose a variety of idioms to have been formed ; 
but the manner in which the earth was first peopled was wholly 
different from this ; it was by a gradual extension of families 
into large societies, all connected with a common centre ; there 
was not any dispersion or separation by great distances, the 
community of languages was therefore continued: it is true 
that when the earth had been fully peopled in this way, that 
the distances between nations opposed the same difficulties to 
inter-communication as now exist ; and that the customs, the 
moral character, the legislation, the whole civil and social order 
of societies having undergone various modifications, depending 
on the different positions and circumstances in which they 
were placed, or on the influence of climates and an infinity 
of inferior causes, these may have operated to produce great 
variations in the use of the primitive language, though without 
altering its rudiments or substance. 

Another objection which has been insisted on as very im- 
portant, though in fact it is quite futile, is this ; — " How is it 
possible that the primitive language can have been preserved in 
a corner of Spain from the ravages of time and the ruins of 
empires ; how have been exempted from the common fate of 



55 

the idioms belonging to the most powerful and populous mtions 
of the earth, — Persians, IMedes, Egyptians, and Carthageni- 
ans." This negative argument is without force against the 
solid reasons for believing the Euscaran or basque language to 
hive existed in the first ages of the world. The Arabic is a 
living language, and yet it had its origin in the dispersion ; there 
are also the Chinese, and the Sanscrit of the Bramins, which 
have escaped the common fate of languages. We cannot doubt 
but that a primitive language existed entire in the time of Noah, 
it must have been his language and that of his family ; then 
that was the general language at the time of the dispersion ; 
what difficulty then in believing that the primitive language has 
been preserved till this time, as well as several other languages 
known to have had their origin in the dispersion. 



CHAPTER V. 



Of the Rules necessary to be observed in the Analysis of Words, 
and of the true Euphony. 

Before entering on an examination of the literary monu- 
ments of the primitive world, it is indispensable to treat of the 
rules to be observed in seeking for an exact explanation of the 
words which compose them. It is not to be understood that in 
my analysis I shall follow the arbitrary method of the etymolo- 
gists, nor that I pretend to found on their art an incontestible 
right in the Euscaran language to its primitive character : I shall 
pursue a more philosophical mode of investigation, the lights 
furnished by nature will guide me to the knowledge of words in 
their most minute elements, and enable me to distinguish and 
separate them from the interpolations with which nearly all 
languages have been vitiated. 

It is the excellent character of the primitive language which 
opens the way to this investigation ; — what other language is 
there by which an analysis can be made of all the members of 
even its smallest words, presenting to us in each of them, the 
nature of the subject which it represents ? This rare property, 
in proportion as it developes the hitherto unknown history of a 



56 

celebrated people, discovers the necessity and great importance 
of analysis: the words in a philosophical language being but a 
group of monograms, or modulations of the voice interwoven 
with each other, some representing the subject, and some its 
distinct qualities, it is by a proper use of analysis only, that we 
can penetrate the philosophical structure of the word so as to 
ascertain its true import. 

The arbitrary method of the etymologists, seeking in various 
languages the explanation of what they do not find in the one 
which they examine as original, opens the way by means of 
forced and incongruous derivations, to constructions merely 
fanciful, and terminating in a total misunderstanding of histori- 
cal monuments : — But the primitive language must itself furnish 
the explanation of its words ; — for being first, it cannot have in- 
herited or borrowed from others. 

If the learned men who have employed their talents in the 
investigation of this important matter, had in the commence- 
ment of their labors formed a correct idea of the character 
essential to a language which had its origin in the creation, they 
had not engaged in those toilsome but vain discussions, which 
have left the subject in a state so different from that required 
by sound criticism, and so unsatisfactory to mere curiosity. 

Still more prejudicial to literature has been the detestable 
abuse of etymology by the Greeks, — that famous nation, mother 
of mendacity, and source of the gross errors in which the 
truth of history has been enveloped, from the period when they 
undertook to form out of it a portion of their patrimony of na- 
tional glory. Their learned men, by means of etymology, 
have so confounded epochs, persons, and events, as to leave 
history in such obscurity, as that at this day it is a mere problem, 
whether in the accounts which they have transmitted to us of 
the first ages, we are more instructed by the portion of truth 
which may be discovered in them, or misled by their false- 
hoods : — deceitful by character, notorious for their inordinate 
vanity, the Greeks did not hesitate in attributing to their own 
language the origin of all things, — especially where they could 
find the least analogy in its sounds with the names of foreign 
persons, nations, or territories.* 

* The propensity of the Greeks to falsehood, and their ignorance in history, 
are facts sufficiently notorious; nevertheless, as the admirers of Grecian lit- 
erature are very numerous, and as it carries with it therefore a certain degree 
of authority, it may he as well to submit to the reader some of the opinions of 
the most learned ancients. Plato allows that the ./Egyptians considered the 



57 

I do not however infer from the abuse of etymology, that 
this branch of literature is useless as well as delicate : but it is 
an extremely nice science, and requires a profound knowledge 
of the history of languages and of nations, as well as a philoso- 
phical acumen which has not been the endowment of all those 
who in cultivating it have attempted to extend its limits beyond 
the bounds prescribed by philosophy : withal it has contributed 
powerfully to explain the mechanism of language, and to sub- 
mit its component parts to grammatical rules ; it also furnishes 
the means of tracing derivative languages to their sources ; in 
that view it is recommended by Plato, Varro, Cicero, and 
Quintilian, — and by Locke and de Brosse amongst the moderns. 

Analysis cannot be made in the idiom which we consider to 
be primitive, with all the nicety required by sound criticism, 
unless we have a previous acquaintance with the genius and 
mechanism which furnish rules for the formation of its words ; 
these rules are in a limited number, and are the only rules 
which can be applied ; nothing arbitrary can be admitted ; 
nothing of that license with which etymologists have defaced 
history : our speculations are confined to a single language, nor 
will there be in the examination of its words the smallest varia- 
tion which will not be authorized by philosophical precepts. 

One of the most essential rules to be observed in the investi- 
gation of the true signification of words, is to distinguish those 
superfluous letters which in all languages are added, for the 
purpose of giving that harmony and softness to the sound which 
is called euphony. A great deal has been written on this pre- 
cept, but it appears to have been as much misunderstood as 

Greeks " to be ignorant and trifling in history ', and the accounts which they 
gave of themselves as fit stories for children" Herodotus acknowledges the 
same defects in his nation, (lib. 2.) where he treats of the expedition of 
Hercules to Egypt. Euripides in Iphegenia, says of his countrymen, that 
" they have not good faith in any matter" Amongst the Roman writers, 
Juvenal says, 



Et quidquid groecia mendax 



Audeit in historia. 

Pliny say9 that they are vaui and impostors, — and again in another place, — 
" Mirum est quo procedat Groeca credulitas, nullum tan impudens mendatium 
est, ut teste careat." Valerius Flaccus says, 

" te groecia fallax 



Persequor."- 



Omitting many others, I will conclude these citations with the opinion of Ci- 
cero as we find it in his oration " Pro Flaco."- 

" Tribuo illis litteras, do multarum artium disciplinam, testimoniorum autem 
fidem et veritatem nunquam isti coluere," 

8 



58 

many other properties of language : euphony does not consist, 
as some have supposed, in that musical tone which was used in 
the Grecian and Roman colloquial languages formerly, and is 
now used by the Chinese ; in the most perfect idioms this is an 
accident, not a property ; and in the least perfect, it is a means 
of supplying by intonation the want of expression and precision : 
such idioms may be called musical, but they are not euphon- 
ical : euphony is a property cf language, and is to be found in its 
very nature and mechanism ; not in its musical character, which 
even considered as prosody, is a faculty distinct from the idiom. 
A language which in the composition of its words, uses with 
suitable discretion the elements of the voice, so as to express 
the characteristic qualities of objects, in such a way as to pre- 
sent a correct and complete idea of them, is essentially eupho- 
nical ; for it copies nature, which is perfect and harmonious in 
all its parts : consequently the words of such a language can- 
not and ought not to be soft or smooth, when they are intended 
to convey an idea of rough and harsh qualities; an attention to 
this precept has produced many of those beauties which we 
admire in the best poets, who have supplied by art this perfec- 
tion in which their language has been deficient. Thus who 
but must be pleased with that passage in Virgil wherein he 
represents Juno opening the iron gates of the temple of War, 



" et cardine verso 

Belli ferratos rupit Saturnia postes." 

The very roughness of this verse makes it as agreeable in this 
passage, as is the smoothest in any of the Eclogues, — and this 
effect is produced by the judicious selection of words, an art in 
which Virgil excelled ; the best painter is he who most correct- 
ly copies nature, and considering euphony to be one of the 
most beautiful properties of language, that idiom is the most 
perfect, which in the composition of its words, represents with 
most accuracy the harmonies of nature. 

Harshness and smoothness being qualities in nature, ought also 
to be in the idiom which pretends faithfully to represent her; 
therefore euphony cannot consist in, or depend on, the tones 
of the pronunciation, but must be an essential property in the 
words, which formed on philosophical principles, preserve the 
true euphony in whatever natural tone they be pronounced. 
This is perfectly exemplified in the primitive language ; for 
example the Laburtanians use in their dialect an intonation as 
wholly different from that of the interior of Guipuscoa, as this 



59 

is from that of the country bordering on the Bidaossa and on 
the sea coast, the musical cadences and softness of which are 
peculiarly agreeable; thus though the language is the same in 
all the provinces, yet they appear to have divers idioms; and 
so the Romans imagined : in the same manner one idiom may 
be supposed to be more euphonic, — and another more rude 
and common ; these variations are so great, that were the 
basque provinces separated by wide distances, it would not be 
doubted but that they had languages altogether distinct. 

The words of language are composed of a certain determin- 
ate number of modulations; all those produced by nature are 
precise, appropriate, and perfect, though some are rough and 
others smooth. Many of the learned, not having paid at- 
tention to this fact, have absurdly asserted that the r, as also the 
k and the t, are not euphonical letters ; had they consulted 
nature, they would have found that the r in its proper place is 
as euphonical, as the soft e, or the sonorous n. In a philoso- 
phical language there cannot be any euphony without proprie- 
ty ; and there cannot be any propriety in attempting to repre- 
sent rough things by soft modulations: The true Euphony then 
consists in an exact representation of nature in her different rela- 
tions, by those modulations which are best adapted to the char- 
acteristic properties of the subjects to be described by them, 
all modulations being euphonical when judiciously employed in 
the formation of words. Had those of our Spanish literati 
whose preventions have led them to consider the basque lan- 
guage to be harsh and unpolished, been aware of these princi- 
ples, they had not ventured on those bold assertions which in 
effect condemn the language for its very perfection ; in observ- 
ing those harsh sounds of our patronymics from which they 
have so hastily inferred the want of softness in our language, 
they would have seen that those names being definitions of 
localities, seats of our families placed in rough mountainous 
regions, could not be otherwise than rough and harsh. 

The imitation of nature then, is that which constitutes 
euphony, and perfects a language; but as there, are different 
degrees of perfection, so we cannot consider a language to be 
completely euphonical, which in its words gives merely a re- 
presentation of the subject referred to; it is necessary that the 
several parts of those words should be so connected, as to make 
the pronunciation continuous; it was therefore that in the 
primitive language, wherever a rigorous definition brought two 
vowels together in the same word, a consonant was inserted 



GO 

between them, so that the pronunciation might not be arrested, 
and thus the unity of the word might be preserved : in such 
cases, the signification of the inserted consonant does not 
enter into the composition of the word, its only office is to 
euphonize it ; therefore it is to be rejected whenever we exam- 
ine the word in its primitive formation : for example, in the 
composition of the word odola which signifies the blood, the 
original word is o-ola, exactly expressing the idea as to that 
humor of the body, which belonged to the physical doctrine of 
the primitive world : but the word, though very expressive, 
was not quite euphonical; for the union of two vowels occa- 
sioned two expulsions of the breath in pronunciation, therefore 
the d was placed between the two vowels to preserve the unity 
of the word, and to render it perfectly euphonical. This same 
rule has been very much attended to in the. latin language, 
as for example in the words, re-d-eo, re-d-integratur, where 
the d is not placed as part of the composition of the words 
necessary to their significations, but for the mere purpose of 
euphonizing them. 

In the Grecian language also this rule has been observed, 
for example in the word di-x-caou in which according to Plato 
the x is euphonic ;• and indeed there is not a known language, 
even amongst those the least polished, in which more or less 
attention has not been paid to euphony ; hence we must con- 
clude that it is a principle of nature herself. 

Whether it be owing to that instinctive disposition which leads 
man to seek for short methods for the purpose of diminishing 
his labor; or to the influence of climate on pronunciation; 
certain it is that language has every where been disfigured by a 
multitude of syllabic contractions. This defect being universal 
in the languages of the dispersion, consequently the primitive 
words which are still found in them, have undergone the same 
degree of alteration ; hence it is necessary in analyzing them 
to supply the suppressed letters for the purpose of restoring ihe 
true pronunciation ; and this is easily done, because in general 
the words which have been altered, present their meaning at 
first view notwithstanding this change of form ; besides, the 
primitive language being free from these irregular contractions, 
its very genius points out the rectification. 

As all the means which have been employed to render words 
euphonical, are so many precepts necessary to be kept in view 

*Plat: in Crat : " Merito Ji-k-uicju est appelatum, x u no 
Politioris prolationis gratia interject." 



61 

in a correct analysis, that we may not confound the elements 
of the composition, so it is essential that we do not forget 
affinity, which substituting one letter for another for the purpose 
of rendering words more smooth, has been employed in most 
languages ; thus we so frequently find the b substituted for the 
p, I for r, t for d, c for s, and k for g, — and vice versa : 
the Euscaran language which explains the qualities of objects by 
their appellations, calls the sun ekus-quia, but as this word has 
not all the softness which the delicacy of the language required, 
the k though it enters into the composition of the word with its 
true value, is changed into .a g, and the word becomes egus- 
quia ; so in analysing this word we must reject theg as merely 
euphonical, and restore the k. 

It is also necessary to observe, that the alphabets of all 
languages are not equally complete; hence it occurs that some 
of the words of the primitive which have been preserved in 
other languages, have not the full and precise expression which 
belong to them, for want of suitable modulations in those 
languages ; in such cases the nearest affinities have been em- 
ployed ; thus for example in the word uts-ilun which the 
Greeks received from the primitive language, not having in their 
own the modulation ts, they took ps. So in the word bisitz or 
Jisitz, which with its characteristic of an appellative noun is 
bisitza, or Jisitza, and means life, the Greeks adopting it to re- 
present nature, were obliged to substitute for tz, an s, and pro- 
nounced (pvCtq, or jisis.* 

In the examination and analysis of primitive words found in 
other languages, it is also necessary to observe that terminations 
have been added in harmony with the several characters of 
those languages ; consequently such foreign terminations are to 
be rejected ; this is easily effected, seeing that the primitive 
word itself never varies, therefore the difference made in its 
form by the foreign language is easily detected by adverting to 
the genius of that language ; for example, if we would know 
what is the formation in the primitive, of the word Vtnus in 
the latin language, considering the genius of that language, and 
that the radical word cannot have varied,- we shall expect to 
find it by abstracting it from the latin declination, Ben-us, 
Ben-eris, Ben-erem, we have then ben as the radical. 

These are the principal rules to be kept in view in the 
analysis of words, and I have here stated the motives of con- 

* I for u see what is said on upsilon. 



G2 

venience or necessity which have introduced them into languages, 
that the reader may see the reason of my frequent application 
of them, and not attribute this to an arbitrary caprice. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Of Numbers, or the first Part of the System of the Universe. 



jU 



SECTION I. — OF THE MATTER OR BODY OF THE UNIVERSE. 

It is not to be doubted but that many of the most important 
productions of the human intellect have been lost : the sciences 
wholly dependent on the fate of the nations which have culti- 
vated them, have simultaneously suffered by the decadences 
brought about by the evil passions of men ; of some nations 
scarcely more than the names are known to us ; so of their 
knowledge, the traces are merely sufficiently apparent to excite 
our curiosity; to satisfy this, what travels! watchings! labors! 
and excavations ! and what sterile results ! the powerful hand 
of time has destroyed all. Yet in the midst of these melan- 
choly reflections there remains for the studious man die means 
of examining the scientific monuments of that nation from 
which all the others have derived, and which left the principles 
of its knowledge as an inheritance for succeeding ages. 

Had all nations been equally careful, as was the primitive, 
to form a perfect language, and to deposit in it the elements of 
their knowledge, we should now notwithstanding the extinction 
of those nations be able to learn what was the state of science 
amongst them, and also the chief events of their histories. It 
is thus that the Gmmk primitive people, now reduced to a few 
agricultural villages, has transmitted to us the most sublime prin- 
ciples of natural philosophy and other sciences; the words 
which contain these, hitherto generally presumed to be merely 
conventional, used by literary men as by rustics, have been as 
little known in their scientific character by the one as by the 
other ; and the kw persons who have given their attention to 



G3 

this language, have not carried their observations beyond the 
ordinary limits of research into other languages. 

But a new order of important discoveries will now exhibit to 
us the basque people with all their titles to celebrity, derived 
from periods unknown to history, when was laid the foundation 
of the sciences which have descended even to this epoch. 

The basque numeration will first occupy our attention, and it 
will be seen that this part of the language, embraces in a ^ew, 
not exceeding thirteen words, all the elements of natural phi- 
losophy. 

The learned will certainly examine with pleasure this primi- 
tive system, which having been scattered through the ancient 
civilized world, we yet find some traces of amongst the He- 
brews as in Moses, amongst the Chaldeans in Ezekiel, amongst 
the Arabs in Job, amongst the Greeks in Pythagoras and Plato, 
amongst the ^Egyptians in Eudoxus and other authors cited by 
Plutarch, amongst the Romans in Cicero, Virgil, and Marcro- 
bius, amongst the Chinese and Mexicans in their traditions : 
this system lost to the literary world, is now after a long course 
of ages discovered entire amongst the basque people who 
originated it ; it is found not full of anomalies as it was under- 
stood by Pythagoras and in the East, and as it was published in 
Greece, but in all its original purity. Nevertheless, I am not 
perfectly sure that I have effected my purpose with the utmost 
desirable accuracy ; for besides that the task is one of delicacy, 
requiring great exactness, the method in which the Euscaldunes 
proceeded in the explanation of their system, was not only 
very subtile and delicate, but affected a certain obscurity which 
renders the interpretation of it more difficult, from, a want of 
auxiliary notices which have not come down to us. 

This system, simple in its essential features, after presenting 
to us the creation of the first principles of all things, of the order 
in which they were created, and of the proportions in which 
they exist respectively to each other, and in the plan of nature ; 
which is truly the knowledge a priori of first causes ;• makes us 
acquainted with the vast soulot the universe in the combination 
of three movements ; one elevating bodies, — another, though 
less in degree, modifying the first in a direction towards the 
centre of the universe, — and the third directing the bodies thus 
suspended to move round the centre. 

This mode of explaining the movements of the universe is 
not less ingenious and simple, than the admission of fecundity, 
or a law by which motion as well as all other principles are 



64 

constantly reproduced ; it establishes a doctrine the reverse of 
that of Descartes, who held that nature preserves always the 
same quantity of motion. 

Notwithstanding all the efforts of philosophers to discover 
perpetual motion, thus as it were to withdraw our system from 
the superintendence of the Supreme Being, the grand spectacle 
of the admirable harmonies of nature must make them sensible 
to i(s dependance on that being ; and in good faith they must 
confess, that motion cannot be unalterable, for the causes which 
co-operate to destroy force, being more than those which pro- 
duce it, according to the doctrine of Newton, motion would 
certainly cease if the supreme power did not from time to time 
communicate a new impulse to it : this doctrine is that of the 
Euscaldunes, who observing that the principle of fecundity pre- 
vailed throughout the universe, considered it as a principle 
established by God to maintain the order of the creation in all 
its elements. 

The primitive physical science, bounded by the simple 
notions furnished in the denomination and order of numbers, 
does not enable us to present our system supported by all those 
means which our ancestors undoubtedly possessed of satisfying 
the doubts which it may be of a nature to give rise to ; but in 
this respect, those who have adopted the theory of attraction 
have not any advantage over us ; with all the aid of their data 
and calculations, they never will be able to give solutions of the 
very serious difficulties and embarrassing doubts and contradic- 
tions which grow out of their theory. 

One of the circumstances the most mysterious in the Euscaran 
language, is its numeration ; its definitions bear no analogy to 
the common idea of numbers ; in the composition of them there 
is much enigmatical obscurity, besides a total independence of 
each other, each carrying with it its own abstract idea ; these 
difficulties, and that of finding an indication of the first principle 
on which the nomenclature was formed, so discouraged me in 
the commencement of my work, as almost to persuade me to 
abandon it ; but in the course of my investigations 1 found many 
proofs that the celebrated systems brought to Greece from 
JE'iypt, Persia and other countries of the east, had their origin 
in ages anterior to the deluge, and fixing my attention on the 
mysterious philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, in which num- 
bers have so great a part, 1 saw abundant reasons to conclude 
that those famous doctrines were founded on the principles of 
the basque numeration ; a few essays put me into the true road, 



65 

and led me clear of the labyrinth in which I had been engaged. 
It is now made evident to me, that all the harmonies of the 
Pythagorean numbers out of which Plato formed. his celebrated 
Timeus, a work which has produced so many commentaries, 
are no other than systems raised on the notions relative to their 
numeration and their physical opinions, which the Euscaldunes 
had left spread over the East, but differing from them by those 
alterations which all systems borrowed from former ages 
have necessarilv undergone : when afier the migrations of the 
people of the dispersion they desired to revert to the sciences 
which had been comprised in the language of their ancestors, 
without that original to consult and by which to solve the doubts 
resulting from the imperfect relics of physical knowledge, they 
we're obliged to form a system which might explain them in 
the best manner then possible: though the primitive system 
degenerated thus from its principles, yet enough of it remained 
to disclose some of the sublime ideas which it embraced, these 
captivated the sages of the East even to superstitious veneration, 
and finally became an essential portion of their theology. This 
philosophy brought to Europe by Pythagoras, formed a nume- 
rous sect which existed for many ages after his death ; amongst 
those who most contributed to its celebrity was the great Plato,* 
he has left us in his Timeus, proof of his adhesion to it, and of 
his conviction that the universe and all its laws, are but the 
result of the proportion and power of numbers. 

Ascending then to the origin of this system, we find that the 
Euscaldunes admitted of two epochs in the creation, both pro- 
ceeding from a supreme ingenite being; the first epoch com- 
prehending the creation of all the principles which enter into 
the constitution of the universe, the second epoch a space of 
six days, giving order to these same principles in the construc- 
tion of the universe ; of this second epoch the cosmogonies of 
all nations have given relations more or less exact, for all have 
preserved some tradition of it ; but as to the first epoch, there 
exists no other than the basque nation which presents to us a 
systematic order of the creation of first principles : Moses con- 
fining himself to his chief object, that of making us acquainted 
with the power of the Creator, says only as to the first creation, 
" in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth" 

* Macrob. de Somno. Hinc et Plato postquam Pitagoricac successione doc- 
trince, et in^enii proprii divina profunditate cognovit null am esse posse sine 
his numeris jugabilera competentiain in Timeo suo mundi animain peristori:m 
numerorum contextionein in efabili providentia Dei (a brie a tor is instituit. 

9 



GG 

meaning all the principles which enter into this great work, and 
from which he then made the universe in six days ; Moses 
then proceeds. to relate the order of the creation, but is wholly- 
silent as to the order in which the principles of nature were 
applied, and as to their harmonies and reciprocal relations in 
the grand edifice of the universe ; and this, because seeing 
their operation in the general movement, he could not doubt of 
their having been previously created, as it is evident that the 
earth was, the abysm or space, the principle of fecundity, the 
waters and all the seed which were intended to produce fruits ; 
these all existed before the six days, (see Genesis, ch. 1 and 2,) 
and the fact is confirmed by the primitive system. 

According to the opinion of the Euscaldunes, before any 
thing existed God was an eternal principle : to manifest the 
unity and simplicity of his essence they called him bat, that is 
one; they believed that in this principle all things had their 
origin, were engendered by its mere perceptions, and were 
placed by its supreme intelligence in the most harmonious order. 
They supposed that numbers had their existence in the first 
productions of the creation, and therefore determined that the 
names of those creations according to the order in which they 
were created, should be the names of the numbers, and they 
gave to each creation a name containing a definition of its 
nature. The world according to the doctrine of that people 
is an animated being, the object of its creation good, and the 
principles which enter into the formation of the universe repre- 
sent the attributes of the supreme Creator. 

Pythagoras, and after him Plato, who found these doctrines 
much altered in the East, fell into the error of attributing to 
numbers a real power, and believed that the harmonies, and 
the lines and figures which represented them, had forme J the 
universe ; that is to say, they considered numbers as ma'erial 
entities, and as having those active principles which resided 
only in the creations represented by them ; so by the aid of 
numbers, geometrical lines, and metaphysical abstractions, they 
attempted to explain all the harmonies of nature : thus the 
number one in the Euscaran numeration being a definition of 
God, in whom as a principle were all' beings to which he could 
communicate existence, these philosophers believed that this 
creating faculty was in the number itself, — that the unit engen- 
dering another, formed two sides of a triangle, and that this 
could only be made perfect by the generation of a third side ; 
they said that the elements were composed of triangles com- 



67 

bined ;* that the acute angle was the form of fire, the octagon of 
air, a dodecagon of the sphere of the world, an icosedron of 
water ; they said that a square was the earth, which as an infe- 
rior element differed from the form of the triangle in the degree 
of difference existing between the elements, without however 
losing its essence, for the triangle and the number three which 
represents it, was according to this philosophy the common 
measure of all things. They said as the Euscaldunes did, that 
the world was animated ; they supposed that the soul was 
united to the body in a* certain numerical proportion, and that 
when the constitutive number was completed, this connexion of 
the soul and body could not be prolonged, — the one abandoned 
the other and produced death, to which opinion Virgil alludes, 
when he says, (Lib. 6, vers. 545,) 

" Explebo numerum redarque tenebris." 

Finally, they maintained that the universe was animated, that 
it might act in union with motion which is so; that the edifice 
of the world was subject to a supreme cause, and that the gen- 
eration of ail beings was owing to an harmonious movement, by 
means of which the principles of -things placed themselves in 
that order which constituted the properties of numbers. 

If these philosophers instead of seeking in numbers and the 
lines which represented them, the faculties and purposes which 
they attributed to them, had applied those faculties to the ele- 
ments which the numbers represent, the results of their doctrines 
had not been so sterile, nor would the sublimity with which 
their ideas at first view present themselves, have terminated in 
total disappointment : but the eastern nations from which they 
derived the principles of their philosophy, could not communi- 
cate more light, for they were totally ignorant of the primitive 
idiom ; it had been lost for many ages, and in that only a cor- 
rect explanation and application of those principles could be 
found. They obtained and applied all that was then known 
upon the matter, but the comparison which we shall now make 
of our numeration with their opinions, will show that they sought 
the truth in its mere shadow. 

BAT. 

From the moment that God began to create, there was order 
and classification of the created beings, consequently there was 
numeration. God who is supreme wisdom and perfection, 

* Diog. Laett. de vit. philosop. — Li. 3. 



138 

could not give being to his creatures but in the most harmoni- 
ous order ; thus he did not create all things at the same mo- 
ment, — this would have manifested his power ; but progressive- 
ly, thus manifesting at the same time his power and his infinite 
wisdom : all things have a divine principle, all having their 
origin in God ; so of numbers. The Platonicians said " the 
principle of the number is divine, for it is unity." The 
basque language, in which numbers are the denominations of 
things created, considers one as father or first principle of tins 
creation, — that is God; the name of this number is bat, and is 
composed of at, ata — an articulation of infancy, which signifies 
father, and of the letter b, a mere expletive in the composition 
to give fulness to the pronunciation of the word ; the radical at, 
which with the characteristic letter a is ata, signifies also gen- 
eration, a quality inherent in the father ; so we say b, at-aitz-a 
baptism ; as though we said of generation abundance, — that 
is, a sacrament in which resides abundantly the faculty of gen- 
erating in the man who receives it. Thus the number one is 
father or generator of all the creatures; that is, according to 
the basque opinion, God in whom exists all the constitutive 
principles of the universe. 

Pythagoras and his disciples applied to unity the attributes 
which can reside only in God, — and in this respect, his one or 
monas conforms with our language : Zarates the master of Py- 
thagoras, calls the number one the father, as it was called in 
Euscaran, — a proof that the name was taken from that language 
together with the doctrine (as to the properties of the number) 
taught by his sect: moreover the Euscaldunes represented 
this number by a point, as is seen in some medals and other 
ancient monuments ; the Pythagoricians and Platonicians did 
so also. 

BI. 

The basque language gave this name to the number two, 
it signifies line, as is seen in the word bi-de-a, the road : bi is 
composed of the modulation i, which signifies any thing lineal, 
radiant, and of the letter b, placed in the composition of the 
word merely to give fulness to the pronunciation ; by the defi- 
nition of this word we see that in the physical system of the 
primitive age, the line or longitude was the first principle crea- 
ted, and in the proportion of the number two. 

This opinion was faithfully transmitted to the nations of the 



69 

dispersion, and thus Macrobius,* who was acquainted with the 
opinions of Plato, and had studied very particularly the numeral 
philosophy of Pythagoras, says expressly, that the line was the 
first existence produced by the omnipotence of the monade or 
number one, and that consequently the two is the first number. 

The Pythagoricians had an unfavorable opinion of this num- 
ber, and having preserved in their schools all the mysteries and 
allegorical allusions with which the oriental imagination had ob- 
scured the. most obvious truths, they said that two was a poor 
number, defective, that it was discord and audacity, the genius 
of evil, he. he., and of such a nature, that if its influence pre- 
vailed in the air it produced tempests, if in the mind vices, if in 
the body diseases, if in cities and families, seditions and discords. 

As the line is a measure, and represents the distance or 
division between one point and another, and as according to 
the Pythagoricians, separation or division is the origin of all 
evils, hence generalizing this principle, giving to the number real 
power, (which does not belong to it) and abstracting the line, 
they attributed to two all the above mentioned properties, at- 
tempting thus to find the harmonies*of the moral world in those 
of the physical. 

IRU. 

To the line succeeded the creation of motion in the propor- 
tion of the number three, as is indicated by the name of that 
number in basque, i-r-u, which signifies literally of lineal 
movement abundance ; it is composed of the modulation i, be- 
fore explained, of the note of motion r, and of the abundantial 
letter u. 

Here then is the creation of motion, that admirable principle 
which presents to us the perpetual action of the universe ; its 
nature is expressed by the number three the proportion in 
which it was created, and in which it is placed relatively to the 
other principles in the plan of naturef ; thus we are assured 

*Macrob. " Dyas quia post monadem prima est, primus est numerus. 
Haecabillaomnipotentiasolitaria, in corporis intelligibilis linea prima defluxit." 
And again, " Primus ergo numerus in duobus est, qui similis est linea." 

f " The proportion in which it was created and in luhich it is placed" 8fc. 
The Spanish word proporcion which frequently occurs in this work, I have 
uniformly rendered by our word lt proportion" as being preferable to ratio, 
relation, affinity, or their synonymes, though not completely covering the 
whole sense of the author ; perhaps the best translation of this word would 
be into the French " rapport ;" it is said " numbers had their existence in 
the first productions of the creation," — and again, " the moment God began 
to create, there was order and classification in the created beings, and con- 



70 

that this principle will suhsist perpetually as well as the others, 
and those are answered who have said, " that the nature of the 
moving power not being known, it is impossible to determine a 
priori whether it will continue to act unceasingly." 

The general persuasion amongst those who are most pro- 
found in physical science is, that motion is a property of mat- 
ter ; but we see that the primitive doctrine held on the contrary, 
that motion was created before mptter : it was created infinite 
because term had not yet been created, and its first direction 
was a right line, because that was the only principle which had 
been previously created, consequently it could not act in any 
other direction. 

The Platonicians said that the number three was a full num- 
ber, and represented abundance and multitude, this was pre- 
cisely the opinion of the Basques, who even at this time, in 
saying to hold or possess, use the name of this number, thus 
iru-qui ; and money they call d-iru. 

Those philosophers also said that this number, which they 
represented by a triangle, corresponded to the perfections of 
the soul; Virgil alludes to this doctrine thus 

" Numero deus impare gaudet." 

This opinion was founded on the doctrine of the primitive 
system, that in the number three was created the principle of 
motion ; in the philosophy of Plato, the soul and movement 
were identic, thus with the imperfect notions which they had of 
the primitive doctrine, they attributed to this number perfection : 
though it is true that motion had its being, and the soul of the 
Universe its origin in this number, yet its excellence and per- 
fection belonged to other proportions distinct from three, as we 
shall see hereafter. The Pythagoricians attributed also to the 
number three superficies formed by three lines, but herein also 
they deviated from the primitive system, according to which no 
matter yet existed of which to constitute superficie ; nor was 

sequently numeration ;" here then is the rapport, between the number and 
the principle created ; thus this system supposes a philosophical relation, a 
certain harmony between the number and the principle, belonging to their 
simultaneous creation : the name of the number denotes at once the nature of 
the principle, and the order in which it was created ; the principles or causes 
in the plan of nature are placed in a numerical order, which is their fit, har- 
monious, and therefore necessary order respectively to each other ; this 
numerical order then corresponds exactly to the names of the numbers in 
the same order; in that order then the same relation which one number has 
to another, one principle has to another, and the rapport between the num- 
ber and the principle is perfect. 



71 

there form to determine its figure, nor did longitude or motion 
yet produce any thing but a line. 

LAU. 

This is the name which the Basques give to the number four, 
so celebrated and mysterious in the school of Pythagoras that 
his disciples swore by it as most holy, and held that it was a 
number which reached nearly to the perfection of the soul. 

As the primitive people had wisely established a theory of 
denominations to explain the sciences, they did not deem it suf- 
ficient simply to show that the creation of matter in the propor- 
tion of number four immediately followed that of the principle 
of motion, but gave also such a definition of it as to explain its 
essence, and therefore called the number which represented it 
la-u, which with the characteristic of an appellative noun is 
laua, from whence comes the latin lava, that is the matter of 
Volcanoes. The word is composed of the syllable la which 
signifies union, adhesion, and of the abundantial letter u; that 
is to say, matter is a thing of abundant adhesion ; this is what 
we now call cohesion, or perhaps with equal propriety hardness, 
or impenetrability. 

As soon as matter existed it had motion, which had been 
previously created in a line, which had also been created ; con- 
sequently the Euscaldunes did not admit inertia, but considered 
repose as a forced stale. 

Matter infinitely divided, and carried to an infinite longitude, 
did not present to physical examination any of those qualities 
which enter into the formation of bodies, hence the propriety 
of defining it by a quality common to all, cohesion, in virtue of 
which the panicles of matter united form bodies in which re- 
side the mathematical properties of latitude, longitude, and 
depth. 

As the Pythagoricians, notwithstanding their respect for this 
number four, never could understand that in the proportion of 
this number had been created matter, they fell into the error of 
concluding that matter was increate and coeternal with God ; 
this opinion became so general in all antiquity, as to be received 
for a dogma in their theognnies and cosmogonies. 

In the midst of the errors of antiquity as to matter, the first 
source of their opinions was manifest ; for the same philoso- 
phers who taught the eternity of matter, also said that in the 
proportions of the number four all bodies had their origin ; this 
which appears to be, and has always been considered as a very 



72 

absurd contradiction, has its explanation in the basque principle 
that in the number four God had created matter, from which in 
fact all the bodies of the universe have been composed. 

This is not the only instance in which they unwittingly taught 
the contrary of what they believed ; the Pythagoricians who 
distinguished the numbers by the names of the gods, said that the 
quadrangle corresponded to Ceres, and this being one of the 
names of the earth which is for us the most sensible part of 
matter, it is easy to discover the source of their opinion, as well 
as that of the ./Egyptians, who held that Isis (or the earth) was 
born on the fourth day : Plato says, that the component parts 
of the earth are cubical; that is, composed of quadrangular 
facets, and that this number four had entered into the procrea- 
tion of the world : and finally the Chinese, amongst whose ex- 
travagant pretensions are to be found many interesting notices 
concerning the nations of the dispersion, formerly believed that 
the globe which we inhabit was a square : this opinion of the 
Chinese has been cited as a proof of their ignorance in geogra- 
phy, but in truth, though the opinion taken in its apparent sense 
is absurd, in its origin it is far otherwise, for it is evidently de- 
rived from the primitive philosophy, which supposes the matter 
of which the earth is formed to have been created in the pro- 
portion of the number four. 

BOST. 

To the creation of matter succeeded that of term in the pro- 
portion of number ^re ; matter spread through the immensity 
of space was the principle of many things and privation of all ; 
that it might serve for the wise purposes of its creation, the 
Supreme Author created term to this matter; thus it was sepa- 
rated into homogeneous portions, the particles of which were 
united by cohesion. 

The Euscaran language calls the number five bost, a word 
composed of the letter b, placed in the composition to give 
fulness to the pronunciation, and of ost, ost-a, which signifies 
term, (limit, he.) as is seen in the word osta-tu-a, the tavern, 
literally a thing placed at the term ; and in the word ost-eguna 
which signifies literally the terminal day, that is the day which 
terminates the quarter of the moon. 

Our modern physical science is unacquainted with this princi- 
ple, yet its existence is very obvious to whoever will fix his at- 
tention on the operations of nature; it is that which determines 
vegetation, causing the seed placed in the earth amidst hetero- 



73 

geneous matter, to preserve its pure essence, and that prevents 
the intermixture and confusion of the various salts, oils, and 
rosins which enter into the composition of the stalks, leaves, 
flowers, and fruits; it is the same which in the animal creation, 
separates from the alimentary suhstances, the blood, the bile, 
and all the other humors of the body. 

The Platonicians attributed to this number a variety of excel- 
lent qualities ; they said amongst other things, that it compre- 
hended within itself the universe and all beings ; they seem to 
have tortured their imaginations to discover in the composition 
of the number the power which they attributed to it, which only 
belongs to term, of which it is the representation. 

The ^Egyptians, who had formed their theology out of the 
primitive physical science, said in their Genesis, that the fifth 
day their god Nepthis was born ; this in physical language means 
that in the proportion of the number five term was created, for 
Nepthis is no other than this principle, as the ^Egyptians them- 
selves have made us understand by material examples.* 

SEI. 

Next to the creation of term, followed that of form in the 
proportion of the number six, which is called in basque nume- 
ration sei, this with the characteristic of an appellative noun is 
sei-a, which signifies the form, as in seia-tu, to make forms. 
By means of this principle the particles of matter acquired suit- 
able forms in each work of the creation, of some was composed 
the earth, of others were the planets, and so on of all inferior 
existences. Form not only gave to each species the matter 
which belonged to the purpose for which it was intended, but as 
a principle to exist as long as the universe, it superintends the 
reproduction of things so that matter shall not deviate from its 
primitive form in each species, according to the intention of the 
Creator. 

The Platonicians, always attributing to the proportions of 
numbers the power which exists only in the principles repre- 
sented by them, held this in great respect ; they observed that 
squared it terminated in itself, that is in thirty six; for the same 
reason they attributed equal power to the five ; and applying 
this observation to the operations of nature in vegetation, they 
attributed to the number six, that the seed in the earth, after 
passing through various changes, terminated in itself; it was in 
this course of reasoning, that after observing the harmonies of 

Tlut : de Iside, Nephthyn vocant extrema tcrrae, et iminentia mari. 
10 



74 



nature, they adapted the proportions of numbers (which they 
also called harmonies) to them, and persuaded themselves that 
numbers were the principles, not having been able to penetrate 
that these were but the representation of created principles 
which embraced the whole of nature. 



CHAPTER VIT. 

Of Numbers — in Continuation. 



SECTION II. — ON THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE OR OF THE PRINCI- 
PLES AND LAWS OF ITS MOVEMENT. 

The opinion that the world was animated was derived from 
the primitive ages, transmitted to the people of the dispersion, it 
became the subject of laborious research to the philosophers of 
antiquity, who endeavored by means of such traces as remain- 
ed of the primitive science, to ascertain the essence of that 
soul which according to their doctrine was the source of all 
others in animated nature : the primitive societies certainly 
established such an opinion, though restricted to much more 
narrow limits; according to the Euscaldunes the world was 
animated, and contained within itself all the principles necessary 
for the animation of other beings ; but there is not to be found 
in any part of their physical doctrine, a single idea that this soul 
has any other functions than those which direct motion by a 
merely mechanical instinct, and impress it on the creatures with 
the instinct appropriate to the organization which each in its 
species received in its first principle or seed, and with that uni- 
versal law of conservation which God appointed for the whole 
creation. Thus we can call this soul sensitive and vegetative, 
but by no mode rational. 

Pythagoras said that the soul was harmony or the result of 
the proportion of numbers, also that it was number moved or 
agitated by itself; his doctrine wholly derived from the basque 
numeration, is as incorrect in this as in the principles explained 



75 

in the last chapter, and the opinion of the primitive people 
which we will now develope. will not only show the source from 
whence the orientals derived their celebrated system as to the 
soul of the universe, but will explain the true principles and 
proportions which constitute the original doctrine. 

ZASPI. 

The Supreme Author having given to matter term and form, 
willed laws and suitable proportions to motion also. 

The Pythagoreans and Platonicians when they commenced 
to build their theory of the soul on what they discovered of it 
in the primitive philosophy, found motion and matter already 
formed, but as they had not penetrated the creation of matter, 
nor comprehended that of motion, (for Pythagoras as we have 
before seen did not understand the number three in its true im- 
port,) so they supposed that matter and the soul of the universe 
were coeternal with God ; and that though these being in a state 
of confusion, God had given to them order, " nevertheless (say 
they) he did not give solidity to matter^ nor movement to the 
soul, nor did he make a body of that which was without a body, 
or the soul of that which was inanimate." 

Thus those philosophers reasoned, giving us even in their 
errors an idea of the original from which they deviated. In 
fact the motion created in the proportion of the number three, 
was an infinite and unregulated movement ; and matter created 
in the proportion of the number four and enveloped in this 
movement, was also a chaos ; both created before the formation 
of the world and the regulation of movement required new laws 
to give to them that perfection with which they now act in the 
grand system of the universe. 

In this state of them God created profundity, the principle 
which impels and carries bodies towards the centre of the uni- 
verse ; we call it z-azpi, the name of the number seven, in the 
proportion of which it was created ; this word is composed of z 
placed in the composition for fulness in the pronunciation, and 
azpi, which with the characteristic is azpi-a, signifying a thing 
beneath; so the greatest force of this principle is in the lowest 
point of the universe where is the sun, towards which are drawn 
all the bodies that are above it. 

Thus we see how ancient is this celebrated principle of 
attraction, which the moderns call centripetal force ; but it is 
to be observed, that the primitive doctrine did not place this 
attractive power as we do in the sun, but in the centre of the 



76 

universe, in which the principle of profundity resided before 
the sun had been created. 

Plato said, that seven was the first number of which the soul 
of the universe was composed, this as we see conforms to the 
basque numeration, in which profundity represented by this 
number, is the first ordination of motion. 

The ancients dedicated the number seven to the sun under 
the name of Apollo* ; the generation of profundity in the pro- 
portion of the number seven, and the residence of this principle 
in the centre of the universe which is occupied by the sun, 
explains the mystery of that dedication. 

ZORCI. 

To the creation of profundity followed that of elevation, m 
the proportion of the number eight ; this is a principle acting 
in opposition to profundity by separating bodies from the centre 
and elevating them towards the fixed ;\ the number eight, as 
well as the principle which it represents, the basques call z-or-ci 
a word composed of the initial z, of or-or-a whatever is eleva- 
ted, and the syllable ci which signifies any thing lineal, making 
together lineal elevation. 

By this definition in the primitive physical science, it will be 
seen that the principle of attraction, which we suppose to be a 
modern discovery, was not only known to the primitive world 
in profundity, but that the principle of elevation unknown to 
modern philosophy, established the ancient system on a basis 
very different from the doctrine admitted in our schools. The 
primitive world did not suppose that attraction resided in matter 
as the moderns pretend, but in two forces diametrically oppo- 
sed to each other, and which thus sustained bodies in space. 

This philosophical opinion of the primitive world as to the 
universal movement, and the creation of the two opposite prin- 
ciples of profundity and elevation, became in alter ages a 
theological dogma amongst the predominant doctrines of gen- 
tilism, supposing the world to be governed by two gods, one 
the principal of all good, the other of all evil ; which doctrine, 
says Plutarch, is so ancient that it is impossible to find its origin ; 

* All the mythologies of the ancients were derived from the East; abun- 
dant proofs of this are said to exist in the Hindostani. There is not an an- 
cient absurdity which had not its origin in an absurdity still more ancient, 
says Condillae. 

f The basque philosophy merely mentions the existence of fixed bodies, 
that is of other systems above ours ; but does not form any theory respecting 
them ; their space or eun did not extend beyond our planetary system. 



77 

the materialist Senancour says of it, that it came to be moral 
and theological, and that throvghout all the nations of the East 
are found undeniable traces of it, as a doctrine taught by 
a primitive people long bejore the existence of those eastern 
nations. 

Pythagoras, who received this doctrine in the East as ex- 
plained by numbers, says that Typhon was an evil power and 
produced by the number fifty-six ; which is to say that Typhon 
is the war or opposition of the two principles profundity and 
elevation represented by the numbers seven and eight ; these 
multiplied together produce fifty-six, his Typhon ; here then 
is the solution of this Pythagorean mystery. This doctrine 
not only spread over the East, but was introduced into the 
West by the first settlers ; Marcus Mesala of consular rank, 
and who was an augur in Rome for fifty-five years, says that 
the Creator of the universe had united the force which directs 
heavy bodies to the centre with that which elevates them 
towards the superior regions, and had surrounded them with 
the heavens. Cicero says that the numbers seven and eight 
are full numbers, — and Virgil, " Ab lobe principium Musae 
lobis omnia plena/' The word lobe was a technical word of 
the primitive physical science, io-ba, signifying any thing in 
which resides elevation and profundity ; it is composed of 
io-io-a, rise or elevation, and the letter 6 which with the char- 
acteristic is ba, and signifies profundity ; this name compre- 
hending the two forces which fill space and operate in all the 
works of nature, explains the meaning of Virgil. Homer in 
his Iliad places attraction in the principle of elevation residing 
in loba, and supposes this imaginary divinity to say that by a 
chain fixed in the heavens the earth and the seas are drawn 
upwards. The opinions of men vary with the course of time; 
in the age of Homer attraction was in elevation, now it is in 
profundity; in the opinion of the primitive people it was in 
both principles. 

BIDERACI. 

There was yet wanting a proper motion of the great soul of 
the universe, and the planets suspended in space required that 
proportionate impulse which should carry them round the centre. 
This motion is that mean force resulting from profundity and 
elevation, which personified in the oriental cosmogonies, was 
called Mithras by the Persians, and Isis by the ^Egyptians. 

To the creation then of elevation, succeeded that of the 



78 

principle of beauty in the proportion of the number nine, called 
by the Euscaldunes b-eder-aci, a word composed of the initial 
b placed in the composition to give fulness to the pronunciation, 
of cf/er any thing beautiful, and of aci the seed or principle. 

Notwithstanding the various ideas which are formed of beauty, 
and which depend on different tastes, there is in it a general prin- 
ciple acknowledged by all men ; we frequently see persons and 
things which are not handsome according to the general idea of 
beauty, but which nevertheless excite in us a sentiment of 
approbation : the principles of nature are perfect, and being 
harmoniously interwoven with all the existences in this magnifi- 
cent spectacle of the universe, cannot fail to produce on all of 
us the same agreeable effect; the principle which produces 
in us this pleasing sentiment is motion, and it is therefore that 
the primitive people called whatever is handsome ed-er, a word 
composed of ed-ed-a a sweet thing, and er which is a note of 
movement ; these taken together mean that beauty is a soft 
movement ; and in effect motion is the expression of life, and 
the well proportioned animation of the several members is that 
which constitutes the charm of the whole person : it is thus 
that Virgil, one of the most nice observers of nature, when he 
represents Venus under disguise presenting herself to her son 
iEneus near Carthage, does not say as anv ordinary writer 
would have said, that he knew her by the elegance of her form, 
or the beauty of her features, but by the grace of her move- 
ment, — " Vera incessu patuit Dea." 

The motion created in the proportion of the number three 
was a motion rectilinear and infinite, consequently it could not 
subsist after the creation of term ; the supreme being then will- 
ing an infinite motion, but not in infinite space, ordered circular 
movement, which controling the projectile motion, impelled 
the planets to revolve round the centre of the universe ; thus 
according to the primitive doctrine was completed and perfec- 
tionated the universal movement, producing beauty and harmony 
in every part of the system. 

The Platonicians pronounced the number nine most perfect; 
the Chinese considered it as the most fortunate of the numbers ; 
it was mysteriously celebrated by all the nations of the East ; 
by the Mexicans it was specially honored ; by the Greeks it 
was universally respected. All these concurrent testimonies as 
to the importance of this number, amongst such various nations, 
must have had a common origin, and this could have been no 
other than the principle of beauty which the primeval people 
represented by the number nine. 



79 

AMARR. 

All the elements essential to the ordination of matter and 
motion having been created, there was yet wanting a conserva- 
tive principle, that motion might not lose of its power, or matter 
become infecund. It does not comport with the sense which 
we have of the supreme power, to suppose that it would be 
perpetually occupied in preserving its work from degradation : 
we are told that God ceased to work ; " Requievit die septimo 
ab universo o pere quod patrarat." We are told in the basque 
numeration that he created the mother of fecundity in the pro- 
portion of the number ten, which is am-arr, a name composed 
of am-am-a, the mother, and the patronymic termination arr, 
or arr-a, equivalent to the Castillian de, (of,) — we all know 
that the principle of the mother is fecundity ; it is that only 
which constitutes the mother. 

Pythagoras said that ten was the nature of number ; numbers 
being the principles of all things, the nature of them must be 
fecundity, which the primitive doctrine supposes to have been 
created in the number ten. 

Hitherto no one has been able to explain a mystery observed 
in the mode of counting which is general amongst nations; 
when they reach ten, they revert to one, and continue their 
numeration with ten and one, ten and two, and so onwards ; 
but now seeing that the Euscaldunes supposed ten to be the 
principle of fecundity, the explanation becomes obvious ; they 
made all the other numbers pass through ten or fecundity, to 
show that they all received from that principle what was ne- 
cessary to maintain them in the state of plenitude in which God 
had created them. 

The primitive people have transmitted to us a further proof 
of the accuracy which they have observed in the representation 
of ideas by numeration, but on this point they have not been 
imitated by the nations who have derived their mode of 
counting from them ; they considered that as the number one 
was the principle of all things, it could not be fecundified, and 
consequently that it was absurd to pass bat through ten ; yet it 
was necessary to place a substitute for it that the harmony of 
the method might not be disturbed ; they supplied its place 
then with a name, which united to ten carries the idea that in 
eleven God had fixed the limit for the principle of fecundity, 
and instead of calling eleven ama-bat, they called it ama-ic-a. 

There is this further curious particularity to be remarked in 
our basque numeration, it has a number (one) representing the 



80 

father, and a number (ten) representing the mother, or fecun- 
dity ; by which we are given to understand that God as father 
is by means of fecundity continually reproducing the princi- 
ples of things. The Magi of Persia, as well as several nations 
of the East, who formed their philosophical systems on the 
remains of the numeral philosophy of the primitive people, 
admitted the same doctrine; and Zarales, master of Pythago- 
ras, said that in the generation of all tilings there was a number 
father, and a number exercising the functions of mother. 

Plato said that God in the creation of things acted as father, 
not because he had need of the laws of generation, but because 
by means of another power he infused into matter a prolific 
principle which gave to it motion. 

OGUEI. 

When all the principles created to the number nine inclusive 
had passed through fecundity, God created water in the pro- 
portion of the number twenty; according to the basque nume- 
ration we call it o-guei, a name composed of o-o-a, which 
signifies high, and guei, guei-a, which signifies matter, that is 
the matter of heights. The heights is by antonomatia in all 
languages the heavens, and the matter of the heavens accord- 
ing to the primitive philosophy, and even throughout all anti- 
quity, was supposed to be water. 

All the causes having been created, and the principle of 
fecundity to preserve them in their entierty, there was yet 
wanting a vehicle which should carry that fecundity through all 
parts of nature ; this having been the opinion of the primitive 
people, they have taught us by their numeration, that as all the 
numbers or creations pass through the ten, that by this fecun- 
dity their elements may be preserved as perfect as they were 
created, so the number ten or fecundity, passes through number 
twenty or water ; meaning by this, that fecundity being closely 
connected with that fluid by certain affinities unknown to us, is 
conducted by it through all parts of the universe : our experi- 
ence gives extraordinary force to this theory ; wherever water 
flows, upon however sterile land, there forthwith is produced 
abundance of life and fertility in a variety of animation and 
vegetation ; and this could not be, if there did not exist deposited 
in water fecundity of the principles which are inert or without 
exercise in matter. 

Thus the primitive people attributed to water the propagation 
of all things, and as a depository of this universal principle of 



81 

fecundity, they determined it to be the nature* (by pre-emi- 
nence.) From this was derived the opinion of Thales, founder 
of the Ionic sect, who taught that " water was the principle of 
all things." 

The doctrine of the primitive physical science, is also that 
which Moses followed in describing the state of the first crea- 
tion before God had given order to the universe, " The spirit 
of God was carried by the waters ;" according to our philoso- 
phy, Moses meant by the " spirit of God" the principle of 
fecundity in which resides the life of the universe, and which 
according to our numeral system is deposited in the water. 

There may be some amongst the professors of physical sci- 
ence, who calculating the mode of operating of the Supreme 
Being by our methods, will consider the creation of water be- 
fore that of its constituent principles to be a very unphilosophical 
part of the basque system ; but a question raised on this point, 
would be similar to that of whether the hen was created before 
the egg or the egg before the hen. Undoubtedly God formed 
the principles of things to use them in the construction of the 
universe, but it is not given to our limited capacity to comprehend 
his mode of operating in all its details ; we must presume that 
all things were made in an harmonious succession, but who 
can pretend to know the infinite terms of that succession ? or 
the various and infinite combinations of matter ? who can dis- 
tinguish in those combinations results from principles ? for 
example as to the oxygen and hydrogen gasses of which water 
is composed ? The primitive doctrine which acquaints us with 
the creation of water, of course supposes its constituent parts to 
have been previously formed, and comprehended in matter, not 
counting them therefore as principles ; for the same reason fire 
is excluded also frotn the basque numeration, for it was deemed 
to be the most subtile portion of matter ; of which opinion was 
also the great Newton. 

Plato said that the parts of which water was composed are 
icosaedrons ; that is of twenty sides ;* as according to the 
Euscaldunes water was created in the proportion of the number 
twenty, and Plato had not penetrated the real sense of that 
system, so he attributed to the figures formed by this number 
the generation of water, which in fact was only represented by 
the number. 

* More correctly speaking of twenty equilateral triangles. 
11 



S2 

EUN. 

The principles of all tilings having been created, there was 
yet warning a space for nature to display herself in, a void in 
which the principles being placed and developed in the propor- 
tion assigned by the Creator, should operate in due harmony 
the purposes for which they were intended. This was the 
physical doctrine of the Basques, and to the void they assigned 
the proportion of the numher hundred ; they placed in it all the 
force of profundity and elevation, and embraced by it all the 
modifications of matter, forming a unity of system, so that in 
the vast machine of the universe there could not be any one 
portion independent of the rest. 

The basque numeration after it reached twenty as we have 
before observed, descended to unity, and continued counting by 
twenties, till it arrived at five of them ; then instead of saying 
five twenties it said " an hundred" the name of which is E-un, 
meaning literally a smooth, agreeable space, and is composed 
of e,-e-a, a thing soft or agreeable or smooth, and of un-un-a, 
space. 

Every one is aware of the great questions which have been 
agitated amongst philosophers as to the nature of space, and is 
acquainted with the theories on this matter which have prevailed 
in the different schools ; besides those of the ancients, of De- 
mocritus, Leucippus, Epicurus and Aristotle, we have those of 
Descartes and Locke, which are familiar to all literary men, 
the first pretending that space is matter and assuring us with 
much gravity that God has a horror of a vacuum, and that it 
cannot exist; the second maintaining the existence of vacuum: 
this last having become the prevailing opinion, has given birth 
to that of an absolute vacuum, which is as little to be compre- 
hended as the other opinion (of a plenum.) 

If space, as our learned men suppose, were an absolute 
vacuum, or nothing, it is evident that there would be wanting a 
medium of communication or connexion between the parts of 
nature and the whole ; each planet would be without relation 
to the others, and the present harmony of the universe could 
not exist. If the modern doctrine of gravitation of bodies 
towards each other be admitted, as for example of the moon 
towards the earth, how can it be allowed that there is vacuum 
between them ? il there is a vacuum, where is the conductor 
of the influences which regulate the movements of the heavenly 
bodies in the perfect harmony which exists? 

All things in nature arc connected by ,the forces or principles 



83 

of profundity and elevation and projection which fill and form 
the nature of space; and in space, according to the basque 
system, are incorporated all the existences in the universe, as 
members of the same body. Those principles or forces not 
only sustain and give impulse to the bodies of the planets, but 
are the conductors of light to the extreme limits of the solar 
system, raise the waters into vapors, support the atmosphere, 
and finally produce a multitude of phcenomena, all explained 
according to the basque philosophy, by the influence of those 
forces which occupy space. 

Our modern astronomers suppose that space is a complete 
vacuum ; one of the reasons alleged for this opinion is, that the 
resistance which matter would make to the movement of the 
planets, would in the course of time arrest that movement. 
This argument supposes that motion received only a first im- 
pulse, in virtue of which the planets revolve because this pro- 
jectile force does not meet in the void with any resistance by 
which it is weakened. 

The Euscaldunes supposing, as before observed, that fecun- 
dity is incorporated with water, it is probable that they also 
thought that the vapors of this fluid existed in space ; though 
they allowed that the projectile motion was a creation in the 
proportion of the number nine, they admitted a principle of 
fecundity always reproducing, supplying waste, and thus pre- 
serving motion in the full degree of its first impulse ; so that 
though there be not an absolute vacuum, the force of motion 
being maintained by reproduction superior to any obstacle 
opposed to it in space, the planetary movement does not 
diminish in velocity. 

Plato, who in this part of philosophy followed the doctrine 
of Pythagoras, which had not penetrated the exact representa- 
tion of the twelfth creation or number hundred in the basque 
system, said, that the dodecadron (or solid of twelve sides) had 
been employed by God in the creation of the universe ; and 
as the opinion of antiquity supposes this to be globular, he added 
that the dodecagon contributed to this globular figure ; all 
which means to explain by figures the doctrine, that space in 
which exists what we call the world, was the twelfth creation. 

The ^Egyptians also said that the power of the dodecagon 
(or plane of twelve sides) was of Jove, attributing to the first of 
the gods the greatest of the creations ; as the two principles of 
profundity and elevation embrace all space, hence the primitive 
philosophy said very properly that the twelfth creation, or 



84 

space, was of Jove, the signification of which we have before 
given, (under the head Zorci eight,) and hence also these two 
forces comprehending all parts of the universe, as God all its 
forms, antiquity called him Johe, symbolising him by the name 
of the mos*: noble of his creations, and with the dodecagon 
or figure of the universe ; and in truth what symbol more suita- 
ble to the grandeur of the divinity than the universe ; this is 
the true image of the great Jova, a name celebrated and 
sacred amongst the Hebrews, ./Egyptians, Greeks and Ro- 
mans, but the true signification of which has remained till now 
unknown. 

The number one hundred, in the proportion of which as we 
have seen was created space, was held in high estimation 
throughout all antiquity : the history of the gods, which is no 
other than that of nature, says that Cybele, who is the mother 
of all, had a hundred grand-children, to indicate that in the 
number hundred was comprehended all nature. 

Qualis Berecyntia mater 



Invehitur curru, Phrigi/s turrita per urbes 
Lseta DeumPartu centum complexa nepotes." 

In the same way Argos was fabled to have a hundred eyes, 
this was a symbol of the starry heavens, which comprehend 
space, or the number hundred which represents it. 

The number twelve was also held in high estimation as the 
most perfect number, because space was the twelfth and last 
creation ; it was supposed to be specially agreeable to God, 
since in his wisdom he saw fit to limit to this number the prin- 
ciples which he created for the form and government of the 
universe : it was for that reason, as is observed by the ecclesi- 
astical writers, that the Patriarchs (sons of Jacob) were twelve; 
the tribes of Israel twelve; the Apostles twelve; the fountains 
of Elihu twelve ; the stones in the pectoral of Aaron twelve ; 
the columns erected by Joshua twelve ; those who were sent 
out by Moses to explore the land of promise twelve ; the brazen 
oxen in the temple of Jerusalem twelve ; the subdivisions of 
the kingdom of Solomon twelve ; the stones with which Elias 
made an altar twelve ; and finally, not to prolong this enume- 
ration, the signs of the zodiac twelve ; and the months of the 
year twelve. 

MILLA. 

Though with the twelfth terminated the creation of all the 
principles necessary for the formation of the universe, — still 



85 

number progressed, that is to say the principles created con- 
tinued to extend themselves into the infinity of space. We 
learn from the primitive numeration, what Empedocles and 
IMetrodorus (who derived it from the East,) taught in their 
schools. — that what we call the world is but a small portion of 
the universe. 

The Basques as soon as they reached the number hundred in 
their numeral system returned back to unit, and went on thus 
counting hundreds till they reached nine hundred, and ninety- 
nine units; there they terminated the extension of number, that 
is of all the principles of nature, and therefore they placed for 
the number thousand, the word m-z7Za,that is to say whatever is 
dead, absolute privation, and whatever quality is analogous to 
death in the physical order ; this word is composed of the initial 
m, and of the participle ilia, from the verb ill to die ; the prim- 
itive societies meant by this name to indicate the term of na- 
ture and the universe, the absolute privation of all things, the 
"exterior darkness". of the scripture.* 

Aristotle, who acquired some notions of the primitive opin- 
ions, differing from all other philosophers of antiquity taught 
that the principles of things were perpetual motion, matter, and 
privation; but it is evident that privation cannot be a principle 
of any thing, and therefore the Basques, though they place 
in the catalogue of creations the number thousand which repre- 
sents it, (and from thence was the mistake of Aristotle) give to 
us in its very definition the true idea which we ought to have of 
this number, showing that it is not a creature or a principle, but 
the term of nature. 

I have now explained the basque numeration according to 
my best comprehension of it ; the examination of this portion 
of the language presents to our admiration, not only the opin- 
ions of that epoch in which the Euscaran language had its origin, 
but the consummate wisdom and ingenuity by which a system 
was so formed, as to comprehend within thirteen numbers all 
the most sublime principles of natural philosophy, and so 
arranged this numeration, as to present at one view the order 
and connexion of these principles, and of all the harmonies of 
nature. 

All the academic learning of our time were not equal to the 
formation of such a system ; none of our philosophers could 

•"Exterior darkness," i. e. beyond our system. St. Matthew, ch. 22, 
vl3. 



S6 



explain a science like this at once so extensive and so delicate, 
within such narrow and precise limits. 

The Euscaldunes instead of giving in mysterious numeration 
a progression of number quite insignificant, as is done conven- 
tionally in all the languages with which we are acquainted, sought 
it in its origin, and denoted in its denominations, those first 
causes in which it had its existence ; it is thus that they have 
presented to us in a numeral table, the most extraordinary phe- 
nomenon in language which the human genius ever devised. 

Instead of the unmeaning names, one, two, three, he. now 
used by -all nations, here is the admirable mode of the Euscal- 
dunes. 



Common 


Basque De- 


Translation. 


Numbers. 


nominations. 




One, 


Bat, 


The father, or generator. 


Two, 


Bi, 


The line, or longitude. 


Three, 


Iru, 


The lineal motion. 


Four, 


Lau, 


The matter. 


Five, 


Bost, 


The term. 


Six, 


Sei, 


The form. 


Seven, 


Zasp, 


The profundity. 


Eight, 


Zorzi, 


The elevation. 


Nine, 


Bederazi. 


The principle of beauty. 


Ten, 


A marr, 


The mother, or fecundity. 


Hundred, 


Eun, 


The space. 


Thousand. 


Milla, 


The death or privation. 



This most extraordinary monument preserved in the imper- 
ishable archives of the Euscaran language, cannot fail to en- 
gage the attention of the learned. Yet I do not present it to 
the public with the intention of discussing the truth of its prin- 
ciples, for this is not in the plan of my work ; nor is it my pres- 
ent purpose to decide on its merits whatever these may be. I 
leave it to the critics to estimate a document in which we find 
the chief opinions and principles of the theology and philosophy 
of the ancient' eastern nations. 

The explanation which I have given of this numeration, and 
the comparison of it with the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato 
founded on the numeral philosophy brought to Greece from 
the East, leaves not any doubt as to their common origin ; nor 
as to the source from whence were derived the various opinions 
with respect to the excellent properties of certain numbers, 
which have prevailed amongst the nations of the dispersion, as 



87 

the Hindoos, Chinese, ./Egyptians, Mexicans, &tc. — which na- 
tions widely separated, and having had no intercommunication 
since the dispersion, must be supposed to have received these 
and other traditions which they have in common, from a peo- 
ple to whom they all owe their origin. 

The several tracts published by myself, and by my most ex- 
cellent and learned friend Astarloa, have as 1 believe thoroughly 
convinced every unprejudiced mind that the Euscaran or Basque 
language was the primitive idiom brought to Spain by its first 
settlers; nor does there remain the least doubt but that the Gre- 
cian alphabet was wholly taken from that primitive idiom ; I trust 
that the conclusive arguments with which I have supported that 
opinion are irrefragable, and will remain a perpetual proof that 
the Greeks owed the first elements of their civilization to the 
Euscaldunes, and not to the Phoenecians as has been hitherto 
erroneously supposed. It is more especially evident, that the 
Euscaran language, and of consequence its numeration, existed 
before the birth of Pythagoras and Plato, consequently that the 
numeral philosophy which they taught was not their own ; though 
the profound silence with regard to its origin, which as true 
Greeks they did not fail to observe, has procured for them in 
the general opinion the merit of inventors. Whatever compu- 
tation be admitted as to the time when Spain was originally 
peopled, it is perfectly evident also that the Euscaran language 
and its numeration existed many centuries anterior to the Phcene- 
cian epoch ; this computation brings us to a period approxi- 
mating that of the deluge; this being so, and as there was but 
one language common to all the families at the time of their 
dispersion, it is not possible to suppose that those of them who 
came to Spain, quitting that idiom formed a new one during 
all the hardships and labors of their migration ; much less is it 
to be conceived, that during those years of toils and sufferings, 
they acquired all the profound knowledge which is comprised 
in the Euscaran language : if it be true that some of the families 
of the dispersion did gradually form new idioms, we have 
already explained the means by which this was effected ; 
means wholly different certainly from those which must be sup- 
posed to belong to a nation who could form such a language as 
the Euscaran ; such a people must be supposed not only to 
have been preserved from that decline into a state of ignorance 
and semi-barbarism which necessarily results from a long period 
of painful and laborious existence, but on the contrary to have 
made a wonderful progress in the most profound science of 
nature ; for the Euscaran language is a universal encyclopedia. 



88 

We know how many ages it took to restore to civilization the 
other nations which were buried in ignorance ; but whatever be 
the degree of ignorance or of civilization in which we are dis- 
posed to consider the basque people as having been at the time 
of their arrival in Spain, it is certain that they brought with them 
the Euscaran language in which existed the principles of all the 
sciences cultivated by that great nation. 

The supposition then not being admissible that during their 
migration the basque people forgot their own language, acquired 
immense knowledge, formed a new language in which to de- 
posit it, and brought that language into general use ; it follows 
that the language which they brought to Spain must have been 
the same which they had in Armenia, and consequently the 
same that was spoken before the deluge ; but apart from all 
suppositions, we find conclusive evidence of the fact in the 
numeration which we have examined. 

It being certain that vestiges of the numeral philosophy are 
found scattered through various nations who have not had any 
intercommunication since their separation, we must seek for a 
common origin of those opinions in a people and a language 
anterior to the separation ; whatever be that language, the sys- 
tem of nature in question must necessarily have been explained 
in its numeration, because in that only could be contained a 
system wholly founded upon its proportions; and because the 
very ideas of numbers which all these different nations offer to 
us, prove that the principles from which they have derived them 
are founded on the excellences of numeration. Now then arises 
the question, is there a language which presents to us a nume- 
ration regulated to the order and proportion in which are placed 
first causes in the plan of nature, and which at the same time 
manifests the succession, number, and power of her creations? 
Not one certainly the basque excepted; this is the only idiom 
which offers to our examination that sublime plan, and which 
proves by the method and order of its numeration, that it was 
the origin of natural philosophy. 

We have seen how erroneous and limited were the ideas of 
the Orientals transmitted to us by Pythagoras, who had learnt 
all that was known upon this subject in JEgypt and Persia; and 
whilst we observe that every part of the Euscaran philosophy 
proves its originality, we distinctly see how the Eastern nations 
deviated into error by a misconception of the true meaning of 
its numeration : all the form and polish which these ideas re- 
ceived from the great intellectual powers of Pythagoras and 



L.ofC. 



S9 



Plato in the systems imagined by them, have not sufficed to 
establish their theories, nor to prevent their being considered 
by the moderns as chimerical abstractions full of confusion and 
obscurity, and wholly foreign to the principles of sound phi- 
losophy. 

To the learned then may confidently be submitted the ques- 
tion to what people belongs the honor of having invented the 
numeral system ? — if they decide, as is to be presumed they 
will, in favor of the basque people and language, then I leave it 
to them to fix the epoch in which that great nation cultivated 
and formed into a system the principles of natural philosophy, 
and of the other sciences which constitute the basis of their 
language ; an epoch, which as it is not possible to fix between 
the time of the dispersion and that of the population of Spain, 
must of necessity be sought for in ages anterior to the deluge. 



12 



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